Enigma
by ArchReaperN7
Summary: Seventy years prior to current events, the ultimate fight for galactic survival ensued. Follow the story of Marcus L. Shepard, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Garrus Vakarian as they to come to meet and fight forces thought only existent in nightmares. But there is more to the story. Something else is going on behind the scenes...
1. Pre-Prologue

**ENIGMA**

**THE BEGINNING BEFORE THE BEGINNING**

_December 16, 2250_

_1305 hours_

_Alliance History Museum, SSV Normandy SR-2_

_File For Captain Shepard, Marcus_

_Spacer. Son to now deceased parents, Charles and Hannah Shepard, the former being a high-level intelligence operative in the Systems Alliance Corsairs Division, killed in action by turian hierarchy troops on Shanxi during the First Contact War of 2157, the latter being the captain of the light frigate SSV Einstein, before being promoted to captain of the Everest-dreadnought, SSV Orizaba and during the events of the Reaper War, the dreadnought SSV Killmanjaro. _

_Retired at age 78 on 15 March, 2199. Died at the age of 94. Marcus Shepard lived most of his life on the Einstein and witnessed first hand the cruelest species of the galaxy, the batarians, slaughter and enslave the entire human colony of Mindoir. The Einstein was first to respond to the attack and by the time Admiral Joshua Bissouli of the Second Fleet responded to the distress call, most of the colony was butchered or taken as slaves to sell._

_ At age 18, Marcus Shepard enlisted in the Alliance Naval Academy and passed with flying colors, becoming an alliance marine stationed on Eden Prime with the 2nd Frontier Division. When the colony was attacked by, what was assumed to be the exact same faction of batarian slavers that attacked Mindoir, Shepard's commanding officer was killed and using brilliant tactics, Shepard was able to lead his squad onto the slaver vessel, disobeying direct orders from his superior officers to withdraw and await reinforcements, and eliminate the batarian slaver's only method of transportation, and cornered and killed the last batarian survivors. _

_Instead of being court-marshalled, Shepard was excused by his superiors acceptably and given a promotion to First Lieutenant, reposted to the garrison on the economically rich human colony of Elysium, given command of a Platoon sized unit. Marcus Shepard once again showed remarkable courage and tactical skill when the batarians initiated a full-scale invasion of the Skyllian Verge upon their outrage of the Council allowing humanity colonization rights to the Verge, which they considered 'theirs already' and they deployed a small fleet of lightly armed mercenary vessels to Elysium._

_ Due to the Alliance fleet being off on a patrol run on the system outskirts, the colony was taken by surprise and the garrison overrun by a army of 10,000 batarian troops. Shepard, seeing the odds pitted against him, gave the order for his platoon to evacuate the civilians while he held position against the opposing batarian forces, hoping to stall them until the fleet answered the distress call. With just his single M-7 Avenger Assault Rifle and his Katana Shotgun along with a well hidden position, Marcus Shepard single-handedly commenced the miracle of Elysium and managed to hold off an entire batarian army, 10k strong, inflicting heavy casualties on their forces._

_ Thanks to the timely arrival of the Alliance reinforcements, spearheaded by the Melbourne-Class Heavy Frigate, SSV Agincourt, the batarian fleet was routed and the ground army destroyed from orbit. It was discovered after Shepard's extraction that his biotics, the ability to manipulate gravity and the fabric of space itself, only given to people exposed to vast amounts of Element Zero, played a part in his survival, saying it was an unexpected variable for the batarian forces, who possessed no biotic shock troops. Because of his heroic actions, more civilians were evacuated then thought possible and he was awarded with a N7 commendation, access to special operations training with the best of the best and promoted to Lieutenant Commander. _

_Not long after his N7 SpecOps training, Commander Marcus Shepard was posted as executive officer onboard the prototype stealth frigate, SSV Normandy SR-1 (Stealth-Reconaissance 1) under the command of N7 Veteran, Captain David Edward Anderson. Shepard commanded a two-man squad comprising of Lance Corporal Richard Lenard Jenkins and Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, and was deployed on Eden Prime when the colony came under attack from the synthetic race called the Geth, a race of sentient machines created by the Quarians that rebelled and exiled their creators from their homeworld of Rannoch three-hundred years previously, turning them into nomads._

_ Before the events of the attack, Commander Shepard was appointed candidacy for the Special Tactics and Reconaissance Branch of the Citadel, also known simply as the Spectres, an elite but small group of paramilitary soldiers who are chosen to become black ops agents of the Citadel Council, a collective grouping of the three main species of the galaxy; the Asari, Salarians and the Turians. _

_These agents are above the judicial law, meaning they are not affected by the usual law system, and mostly come from the citadel races. Shepard is appointed as a candidate as it usually acts as a catalyst for the race to join the Council, which means humanity has their full attention. Long time Turian Spectre, Nihlus Kryik, the one in charge of observing Shepard, is killed by fellow Turian Spectre, Saren Arterius, a well-known and highly successful Spectre, known for his ruthless nature, his ability to get the job done no matter the cost (even if it means civilian lives) and for his hatred against humanity, originating near the resolution of the First Contact War, also known as the Relay 314 Incident. Jenkins is also killed near the start of the battle and Shepard is unable to stop Saren from escaping, who turns out to be leading the geth forces, who's appearence is also mysterious, as they have never left the Perseus Veil unless under threat from the outside. _

_Everything went crazy from there. Shepard became a Spectre and gave birth to a multi-racial squad comprising of a ex-C-Sec, aka Citadel Security, turian, a quarian machinist turned combat engineer, an asari scientist, a human marine with a bad family history, Kaidan Alenko and a krogan battlemaster. This squad of unlikelies went on to create a whole heap of trouble, as the Alliance labelled it. _

_Saving the human colony of Feros from a geth attack and destroying a sentient-plant lifeform called the Thorian with mind-control capabilities, saving the asari scientist from geth forces on the multiracial colony of Therum, stopping an asari matriarch named Benezia and freeing the Rachni Queen, who's species declared galactic war two thousand years previously and were thought extinct on Noveria, blowing up a krogan breeding facility fortified by geth on Virmire and battling Saren himself, then defying the Council and landing on Ilos in the lawless Terminus Systems and discovering the true fate of the Protheans, the species who the entire galaxy's technology was based off, who were wiped out by a race of sentient dreadnoughts labelled by the Protheans as Reapers that wipe out all galactic life every fifty thousand years._

_ The Citadel is then attacked by Sovereign, a Reaper, who leads a geth fleet to decimate the Citadel fleet, with Saren, its servant, attempting to give full control of the planet-scale station to the Reaper doomsday machine. Shepard and his team however lived up to their record and stopped him, with the Alliance fleet saving the day by saving all the aliens from the big, bad machines._

_Due to Shepard and humanity's heroism, humanity finally gained a seat on the Council, finally able to help govern galactic politics. _

"However kids, this is not the full story of the man we call Marcus Shepard. No, that was only the small snippet of what I had to tell you. You see, I was there myself. I was on his squad" he finished with a vibrant grin, his mandibles switching ever so slightly. The human children looked at him ever so curiously, some with their eyebrows up high, the others with confused expressions, and others who just held blank stares, their emotions bottled up so noone could see their expressions. He simply shrugged it off, it didn't matter to him, he was here to teach. And teach he would.

Finally, as if hours later, one human finally raised his hand, his posture screaming for attention. His mandibles creased into a thick smile and he pointed towards the child, his hand still hanging in the air, "Yes, Jason, what is your question?" The child named Jason finally let his hand fall, his posture relaxing, "If there is more to tell about The Shepard, then why don't you tell us?"

He tried to laugh, but the strangled sound that came out was only a sore reminder of how old he was, how close to death he was coming. He had lived a long life, travelled the galaxy with the human he called a brother, and fought enemies many would cower from. Hell, he saved the galaxy...what was it? Seventy years ago to the day. The man was no longer full of youth, no longer in his prime, he had fought, done his duty, and now he had to give it up so he may die in peace. He was content with his fate, spirits, he deserved the rest more than anyone, as he had fought armies that many thought only existed in nightmares; hordes of emotionless machines, drones of twisted hybrids and to top it off; a race of sentient starships hellbent on galactic harvest.

Yeah, if anyone deserved a rest, it was the man standing right before them. The name however, that always took him by surprise, despite the fact he'd heard it constantly over the years. All the kids knew him as 'The Shepard' as if he was some kind of messiah, as Shepard called them or god. Shepard was a tough son of a bitch, a bit of a stubborn idiot, and he had been close to bulletproof status, but in no way was he a deity. "Well, there are probably alot of things that your parents taught you about Shepard that aren't nessacarily the full story.

No, you see the Alliance tells you all the good stuff, the bits and pieces that they know. But I was there, I served with the man, and I'm telling you, there was more to him than meets the eyes. You may know all the basics; he cured the 2,000 year old genophage virus, he gave the quarians back their homeworld, he retook Earth from those sentient bas..." he was about to continue when he caught the glare of a woman nearby, the asari fixing him with a glare that told him to watch is language. Nodding, he refixed his words. The words that came out made him want to laugh, "..synthetic bosh'tets. They tell you all the good stuff, but they never told you what happened behind the scenes."

The kids looked between each other quizzically, giving each other puzzled looks. He winked at the asari nearby, and she rolled her eyes as her mouth twitched upwards in a grin. Another kid, a young girl, Patricia Deltarans, rose her hand, but her body didn't dance in curiosity, instead it was a posture worthy of a professional reporter, as if she had gone through years of training just for this moment. He nodded towards the girl, and she didn't wait for the words to follow before asking her question. "What's your name mister? And what happened behind the scenes?"

Another voice answered, a cool, raspy but incredibly attractive voice answered instead, the accent so recognizable to him, it wasn't even funny. The smile on the turian's face creased even larger as he realized the voice was coming from behind him.

"Garrus Vakarian, ex-Turian cop, turian viglante, known by many as Archangel, ex-Primarch of Palaven, ex-Council Spectre, and finally...the _bosh'tet_ turian I have come to know as a big brother and my _Meka'lish._" Garrus turned behind him to see the slim, petite and beautifully feminine form of his quarian friend enter from the back, her long, thin arms and purple-like skin, dangling at her sides, her slim purple legs forwarding the quarian on a beeline for the group, her three toes flexing at each step.

She wore traditional quarian attire, a long _fillas _wrapped around her torso and upper legs like a scarf around a neck, the color that of the dark brown bark of human trees with a milky white outline. Her small but perky breasts were easily concealed by the _fillas_, and her arched back moved so fluidly, it was almost dazling. Her face however, that was her most striking feature, it held to the quarian stereotype; it was told by one particular man he once knew and the species that existed before the geth rebellions that the quarian people held natural beauty unlike anything the galaxy had ever seen, their species' attractiveness rivaling even the asari. Noone would ever have guessed, but the quarians were so similiar to humans in appearence that it was extremely surprising.

Three fingered hands, arched back and legs and three toed feet aside, quarians were almost exactly like humans. Her eyes glowed with a luminescent silvery glow, a glow that could easily have been mistaken for a blue light, but the light was so warm it was quite attractive. Her lips were a parched red, a testament to the once rose red color it was once held.

Her hair was long and a jet black color, her hair streaking in long strands just past her shoulders and ending just below her breasts. The hair showed streaks of grey, the once young and vibrant quarian showing signs of entering her twilight years. Her ears were exactly like human ears, and two lines, almost like tattoos but natural, one on the left and the other on the right, curved from the side of her forehead and ended just above her eyebrows. Two more of the lines, not curved however, came from below her chin and ended below her mouth.

Her once smooth purple skin was now wrinkled with age, her freckles however still stood out like dots on a white chart. Every bit of her body once echoed with feminine beauty, but was now withering with age. Many men would have fallen for such beauty, but only one man had taken her seriously, only one had fallen in love with her and caught her attention.

"Spirits...is that you Tali?" Garrus asked, still shocked by the quarian's sudden appearence. What she was doing there was still anyone's guess, last he had heard she had been living a peaceful life on Rannoch with the credits given to her. She was single, with no mate to speak of. The only mate she did have had passed away long ago. Tali giggled.

"Tali'Zorah vas Rannoch, to be precise. And yes, you _bosh'tet,_ what other quarian would call you a big brother?" she teased.

"Point taken." the turian returned, glad that Tali's spirit hadn't aged with her.

The young quarian turned towards the group of excited children, excited because they were meeting another member of Shepard's crew, and excited because they were about to learn more about the deceased hero. Tali turned to Garrus, as if awaiting his permission to tell them all about Shepard's life, but how they fought side by side, and how they faced down the deadliest threat the galaxy has ever known.

Garrus gave a simple nod, implying that he was ready to finally unveil the truth about what it was really like to work with the hero, and what an honor it was to know him as not just a soldier or hero; but a friend.

"Many know him as Spectre Shepard, The Shepard, Hero of the Citadel, Bane of the Reapers, Destroyer of the Collectors, Benefactor of the Council, Posterboy of the Alliance, Forseer of the Geth and of course, a crazy _bosh'tet_ who saved those in need and commanded the smallest but most advanced warship of the decade. But we knew him for what lay underneath his invincible mask, we knew him for what he really was; he was organic just like the rest of us.

He was what you humans call, 'just human.' He felt pain, anger, sadness, distress...and love. He knew all of these values that your people hold so dear, that most organics hold dear. He wasn't just a machine, he wasn't some superhero. He was organic, and only we know the full story. Those and all those that served alongside him. So, do you want to hear a story kids?"

The kids began to quiver, like a wreathing swarm of bees they converged and assembled each other like rookies in basic, just not as organized, not as disciplined. Finally they stopped as they looked at the quarian expectingly. She felt tears well up in her eyes, but only one managed to break out, to streak down her cheek, decades worth of melancholy travelling with it as it fell off her cheek and onto the cold, tiled floor.

She wanted to cry at the memories, of how he was gone. Garrus' comforting talon landed on her hand, squeezing as the turian gave her a comforting and reassuring look. She managed a weak, but eerily convincing smile as a second tear streaked past. She built up the strength to resist it, and she finally spoke, carrying as much strength as she could.

"This is the story of the man I loved."

* * *

**{FILE CORRUPTED. ATTEMPTING RECOVERY}**

**{WARNING: FOLLOWING FILES COULD NOT BE RECOVERED. FILES HAVE BEEN SPLIT AND FORCED INTO COMPATIBLE FOLDERS}**

**{NEW COMMAND ISSUED: ACCESS EARLIER FILES THAT CORRELATE WITH ORIGINAL FILE IN NUMERICAL ORDER. DO YOU ACCEPT?}**

**{COMMAND ACCEPTED. SEARCH INITIATED. SEARCH COMPLETE. FIVE RESULTS}**

**{SEARCH NARROWED WITH COMMAND 'ZORAH: ANDERSON: MEETING'. ONE RESULT FOUND}**

**{ACCESSING FILE. FILE CREATOR: TALI'ZORAH VAS RANNOCH. FILE DECRYPTING}**

**{FILES MOVED INTO NEW FOLDER. PLEASE DESIGNATE NAME FOR FOLDER}**

**{...ENIGMA}**

**{FILE NAME ACCEPTED. OPENING FILE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO VIEW IN AUDIO, VIDEO, VERBAL OR BOTH AUDIO AND VIDEO?}**

**{AUDIO AND VIDEO ACCEPTED. ACCESSING FILE}**


	2. Prologue

**ENIGMA**

**PROLOGUE**

_May 15, 2183_

_2150 hours_

_Systems Allianc Facility, Vancouver, United North American States, Earth._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard._

It wasn't long before Marcus Shepard felt his clenched fist impact the bag once again, the impact reverbrating up his arm. Shepard didn't stop, he followed up with a second hurl, impacting the left side of the bag, and then another, and another, all with the same sense of satisfaction, of gain. Why Marcus Shepard felt that hitting a punching bag, a defenseless object, was a victory was beyond him, all he knew was that he enjoyed doing it, it strengthened him, made him feel like he was a soldier, and not some rookie they pulled off basic to fight a few batarians to earn a few medals.

Of course, Marcus' service record dispelled any doubt in him or his commanding officers, or in his new case of rank, his subordinates, that he wasn't worthy of the N7 armor he wore into combat. His actions on Eden Prime, his intended sacrifice on Elysium. It was quite clear he had earned his rank and his N7 membership. In the end however, he just didn't feel like he had. Like all those times were done by someone else and he had taken all the credit, but that wasn't true at all. He was the one who lead his squad on that slaver ship and he was the one who stayed behind to face suicidal odds against the hostile aliens known as batarians.

Time and time again the batarians had made it quite clear they had a huge grudge against humanity. Ever since humanity spread into the stars, the batarians had labelled them as 'vermin' and 'spreading infection'. Every complaint was followed by attempts to wage war against the Alliance, and every time either the Council came to the rescue or the Alliance answered with brute military force. The Batarians had cut all ties with the Council after the Skylilian Verge invasion, entering isolation. The four-eyed aliens were anything but a civilized people.

Their government was broken and splintered, their economy running solely on slave running and piracy. They had no proper military, just random splintered militias that didn't specialize in the defense of the Kite's Nest, the batarian home cluster, but they were mostly mercenaries or renegade pirates. The batarians were a shattered people, but they weren't varren either. Batarians were jealous of humanity, that much was certain.

Humanity had evolved almost as fast as the asari had when they first discovered spaceflight and climbed into the reaches of space, and had spread almost poisonously, but gaining a pessimistic overview from the Council due to their love of weapons of mass destruction.

Shepard didn't feel proud of being the batarian people's arch enemies, but he certainly had no regrets. The batarians were sadistic pieces of excrement in Marcus' eyes, and what ever happened to their people was well deserved. _Aside from extinction. _Shepard knew these thoughts were redundant, he was seen as a hero in humanity's eyes, a man they looked up to as a symbol of what humans could do.

He wasn't interested in being a celebrity, he was just a soldier doing his duty to protect humanity from all forms of aggression. His heavily built muscles flexed as he once again felt his fist impact the hard lined punching bag, but this time with such force it sent it flying loosely in the air before hitting his arms that he had raised in a defensive block, both arms locked horizontally.

Unlocking his arms, he lowered them slowly as he took deep breaths of air as the bag continued swaying back and forth, slowly slowing down. It didn't take long for Shepard to finally retire, his arms relaxing at his sides as he returned to the seating bench next to him, sitting down next to his duffel bag as he carefully removed his hand protection mitts. Sweat collected in beads over his forehead, the aftermath of his strenous excercise.

The room was of basic design but not of modern texture. The wooden floors streaked out in a dark orange color, the ceiling showing a single white rectangular light in the middle, bathing the room in white light. The walls were the only thing modern about the room, with dark grey steel lining all over the room's perimeter. The middle of the room was occupied by the single punching bag and two meters to the left of it was the very wooden bench he resided on, two pillars flanking the sides of it.

A single door sat on the right of the room, to his left, the second thing modern about the room, a sliding door with the button indicator glowing bright green. The room was ten by ten meters, serving as a gym of sorts. Marcus finished removing his mitts, moving to unzip his bag and place the mitts inside. Checking his chrono he could see that the time was 2154, 9:45 in 12-hour time, and decided he would enter curfew early, wanting to get up early to begin assignment the next morning.

_I've always got a new assignment. N7's are always on the move. _Standing up, he took the duffel bag by the handle and began approaching the door only to hear the familiar whoosh of the door opening.

Turning to see who the visitors were, he saw three figures look at him. _Obviously here for me. New assignment debriefing? _The lead figure was one that was very familiar, wearing his standard alliance uniform of dark navy blue and the golden insignia of a captain on his right chest. His skin was a coffee brown in color, his hair short and cropped almost to the point of baldness, the color of a black raven.

His posture, the way he moved showed that of a professional, one that had seen decades of combat. A true soldier. It demanded respect, reverence and acceptance. The second figure to his left, another human, wasn't quite as demanding of authority. His hair was also short and cropped, sharing the same black color but he held a firm jawline with his face being closer to white than his superior, and his iris close to a greenish color.

He wore standard issue Alliance Combat armor, save the helmet. By the look of his armor type and the insignia emblazoned on his right shoulder, he was a Staff Lieutenant. The third figure caught him off guard, he stood to right of the second figure. A turian. His armor was a waterish blue in color, his reptillian face covered in the black and white face paint of the turian colony of Taetrus.

His face was elongated like a oval, with sharp, spine like appendages sticking out of the back like makeshift hair. Humanity and the turians hadn't been on good terms since the First Contact War; humanity because they saw the turian attack to be 'unprovoked' and the turians because of their hostility towards their people and their actions at Relay 314, which almost resulted in the return of the Rachni: an insectoid species that waged war on the Council three thousand years ago and is presumed extinct following the end of the conflict.

Marcus himself held no prejudice against the turians, as he held none towards any other species, so he was relatively friendly towards them. But not all of humanity were like him.

His eyes were small and reptillian like the rest of his body, his posture was that of the man he followed; strong, powerful and a veteran. Marcus saw the familiar figure smile as his mouth also twitched upwards in a grin as Marcus held out his hand. The figure took it, speaking as he did, "Shepard, you look like you've been training hard I see."

Shepard nodded at the man's words, finishing up the handshake by returning his hands to his sides and rearing up his right in a customary salute, "Captain Anderson."

Anderson shook his head, chuckling as he returned the salute, "Saluting now? What happened to "important stuff first, formal bullshit later"?

Shepard knew the question was a poke at him. Captain Anderson, or David Edward Anderson as his full name went, wasn't just a decorated N7 veteran, but his mentor and most of all; his friend. The man had fought in the First Contact War and executed numerous ground operations post-war, gaining him enough medals to meltdown and create a life-sized statue of himself. Marcus' hand relaxed and retired to his side as he spoke, Anderson's doing the same. "I leave formalities for those who deserve it sir. You're one of them sir."

Anderson shook his head, "Just remember not to let it get to your head. Just because I'm some N7 hero doesn't mean you get to kiss my boots all the time."

Marcus smiled, "Who mentioned that? I'd like to think you're my teacher, an old man and just some guy I found high-up the ranks. I wouldn't kiss your boots even if Abraham Lincoln rose from the grave and asked me to do it." Shepard couldn't help but gain smug satisfaction when he noticed the turian cock his head in confusion. Satisfying for a few seconds at least to know something an alien doesn't.

Still, he'd probably get the same satisfaction mentioning his gods and have me ask the questions. For the best part, the turian wasn't asking questions, which meant he was either not interested, or he was a disciplined man, or both. Disciplined turians weren't exactly a rarity, since their entire species were military fanatics. War ran in the turian blood. It was a part of them, no escaping it. You encounter a turian; chances are they'll have basic or advanced military training, in both cases, never underestimate one.

Anderson smiled again, "Indeed."

The conversation lulled for a moment as Marcus' look glided over to Anderson's two attachees; the other human and turian. Anderson, seeming to notice this, immediately turned to the human on his left, "Commander Shepard, I'd like you to meet Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Alliance Marine, 10th Biotic Subdivision of the Infantry Corp. He's a sentinel, like you he possesses biotic abilities but also advanced technical expertise; nothing like an engineer or machinist of course, but advanced nonetheless."

Marcus' eyes examined the man named Kaidan as he once again surveyed the man's firm jaw line, his professional parade rest position and of course, his weaponry. Marcus shook his combat instinct away as he examined. His ability to assess a soldier's strengths and weaknesses was what made him such a successful operative; he was a strong judge of character, being able to tell if a man or woman could be trusted, if they were a liability or a valuable asset and more importantly; whether they were friend or foe.

He could also quickly read over an enemy's features; armor type, weapon attachment, shield strength, weakpoints, speed and agility, class of speciality as in Vanguard or Adept, Sentinel or Soldier, Infiltrator or Engineer and so many other things that helped him gain a tactical appraisal of his target before analyzing ways to neatralize the hostile.

He wasn't ruthless however and he followed a simple moral code; always give the benefit of the doubt. He was never the one to fire the first shot, but he made sure to be the one that fired the final shot. He gave his opponents a chance; surrender or risk his wrath. He was a reasonable man. He cared about the men and women under his command in a almost fatherly manner, he did what he could to deal with their many personal problems and in the end he had become a reliable and trusting commander; a man people could trust. A true N7.

Finishing his examination, he held out his hand and watched as Kaidan took it, shaking it, "A pleasure to meet you, Staff Lieutenant Alenko." Kaidan appeared to return the nod that Marcus gave as their hands parted and he approached the turian.

"This Commander, is Nihlus Kryik, Special Tactics and Recon. He's a Spectre." Marcus raised a brow at Anderson, but it was the turian, Nihlus, who answered the unspoken question Nihlus held in his mind.

"I'm a member of the Special Tactics and Reconnissance branch of the Citadel Council. We operate above the law, as black ops agents you might say. We can do things most people would never get away with and we do it with the blessing of the Council themselves. We are both respected and feared, and only the most responsible, occassionally ruthless, and brave men and women are chosen to become one.

Of course, not everyone fears us. Many worlds such as Noveria in the Attican Traverse hate us more than fear us, but they recognize our authority. The Terminus Systems however, no, they see us as vermin and they do not accept our authority. They are lawless anyway, so we don't have to worry about breaking any rules, aside from the occassional asari or turian colony in that region."

Marcus nodded in impression, obviously impressed by the turian spectre. He showed all the signs of a strong individual; powerful and intimidating stance, a calm, yet strong demeanour and a look that would have made less powerful individuals melt. Marcus held out his hand for Nihlus to shake, but the turian seemed to not notice or ignore it. Nihlus turned back to Anderson, his stoic stare remaining much the same. "Captain Anderson, we do not have time for this. Tell him about his reposting."

Marcus looked back at Anderson, his hands moving back and gripping each other behind his back in a parade rest, his body straight as ever. "Captain, I'm being reposted? To what colony?"

Anderson shook his head, "Not a colony, Commander. A ship. The SSV Normandy SR-1."

Marcus steadily nodded as the letters 'SR' registered in his mind. _Stealth Reconnissance. _He had heard of the concept of ships becoming 'submarines of the void' and becoming invisible to an enemy vessel's sensors, but he had never thought that the idea had actually passed the drawing board and put into production. For the concept to work, it would have to be done to a small vessel; a corvette or frigate. Corvette's didn't need people like him aboard; they were patrol vessels and light picket warships, which left the frigate as the only option. The Normandy was a stealth frigate.

"A stealth frigate sir. I wasn't aware the concept of stealth technology was finished." Marcus stated, not as a question, but just a matter of factly.

Anderson nodded, "I see your skills haven't tired out. Yes, the Normandy is a stealth frigate. Stealth technology had been perfected a couple of years ago, but the Normandy was a secret project. She's the first of a series of Normandy-Class stealth frigates, the first of her line. The Alliance has enlisted me as its commanding officer and Staff Lieutenant Alenko here as its Chief of Security and commander of the onboard marine detachment. FleetCom wants you as my XO. Nothing major, just a shakedown run. Keep you on your toes."

"Shakedown run? Why would they need a decorated N7 operative, the hero of Elysium and a sentinel on a shakedown run? Sounds a bit fishy, don't you think?" Then Marcus saw it. The gleam in Anderson's eye, that slight moment of hesitation.

The words that would come out were nothing but a convienent lie; Anderson knew what was going on and was at no liberty to inform them. Great, he was essentially going into the dark with no torch. For all he knew the Normandy could be being thrown into the heart of the Hanar Illuminated Primacy for all he knew. But it was Anderson, a man he trusted with his life, and be damned would he ever second-guess him now.

"It matters not. You've been reassigned and you are coming with us to the Normandy." Marcus shot a instantaneous glare at the turian, but immediately recinded it, keeping his professional demeanour. The turian was persistent, that was amendable, but in the current predicament he was being a complete asshole. He could tell already he wasn't going to like this turian, but he decided it would be better to just work with him. Hopefully they'd become friendlier towards each other. But that was as likely to happen as he was to fall in love with a handsanitizer.

"Yes sir. Just let me collect my belongings" Shepard stated, throwing a second salute as the three figures made way for the human to move into the advanced, modern corridors of the facility, making a beeline for his quarters.

_Things just got interesting._

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_May 16, 2183 (Translated Khelish Time)_

_Eighth Hour, Thirty-Four Minutes. _

_Trading Deck, Liveship Rayya, Migrant Fleet, Unknown System. _

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Marine Escort Keenah'Butras vas Rayya._

"I'm sure you'll be fine child, every young adult is nervous when the time comes for their pilgrimage. You'll be fine."

Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay's voice was nothing but distant noise as Tali gained newfound interest in the Rayya's trading deck. The deck wasn't anything extravagant. It was 20 to 23 meters in length, the majority of the deck covered in numerous supplies and resources needed for the continuity of the Flotilla and the quarian people. The room was a horrible, sickly dark brown laced with the color of light green. The lighting was orange in color, with a single large hangar door, now sealed up by a large section of hull and a airlock welded into the middle of its bulk.

The room was as wonderous as Tali herself. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya was a twenty-three year old young woman, a machinist aboard her birth ship, the Rayya, one of the fleet's three bulky but essential liveships that were crucial to the flotilla's continued survival. She was about to embark on her pilgrimage, the quarian's journey into adulthood. Each quarian child, when they were ready, would travel out into the galaxy and return with something of worth to the fleet and prove they weren't a waste of resources. They would present their gift to the captain of the ship they wished to join, and if the gift was accepted, which almost always, then they would join the ship, be recognized as a full adult and earn the 'vas' in their name.

Tali was anything but remarkable, but neither was her people. Exiled by their own AI creations, the geth, three hundred years ago, the quarians were destined to roam the stars for the rest of their existence in a fleet of fifty thousand dying and aging preowned ships. Many times had her people attempted to colonize a world, but the Council had either bombarded it to keep them off it, or they were told that it was more suitable as a turian colony or that it was already claimed by another species.

This angered Tali, the amount of prejudice shown towards her people because of a mistake made by their ancestors, frustrated her to no end. Ever since that exile, the clean environments of the fleet had taken a toll on their immune systems, and they gradually weakened to the point that they were so weak, that stray bits of bacteria could get them sick and eventually prove so fatal, it ended in death.

So a countermeasure was developed. Thanks to that countermeasure, their people weren't extinct, but instead imprisoned in envirosuits that protect them from outside bacteria. Unless they could get a sterile room, they would never be able to leave their suit without getting sick or dying. To take off your suit for someone was an extreme gesture of trust and acceptance and usually; intimacy and love. But Tali had never felt that way about anyone, and probably never would.

Keenah stood next to the airlock, his Raptor Assault Rifle strapped tightly to his back and striker pistol to his left waist. The male quarian's expression was unreadable under his one-sided mask, he could see around him, but noone could the face concealed behind it; another disadvantage of the suits. The only thing visible behind the mask was the silvery, glowing eyes.

The male was also identified by his oval like helmet and the numerous filters at the back that attached it to the back of his suit. This was one of the thing that helped seperate male from female. Of course there was the thin hips and small breasts of the females and the more muscular forms of the males, but the helmets helped this further. Where males used oval helmets and the filters, females had a hood that covered their head, with the visor covering their face. Simple and efficient. Tali nodded at the quarian as he stood up and saluted Auntie Raan, the admiral nodding for him to be at ease.

Shala'Raan wasn't her biological aunt of course, but she had helped Meru'Zorah, Tali's mother, give birth to Tali and place her in the sterile bubble, so in that case, she counted as a auntie to Tali. Shala had also been there for Tali when Meru died, her mother killed by a infection that swept the Rayya and struck her mother when she was wondering about suitless. Her mother had achieved this through strong antibiotics, but even those couldn't save her from the infection that consumed her. As Tali stopped next to Keenah's right, she saw Shala look straight at her and move closer, wrapping her young niece in a tight embrace.

Tali returned the embrace, wrapping her arms around her elder aunt, holding her tightly like if she didn't, she would evaporate and never return.

"Where's...father?" Tali asked, but she felt like she already knew the answer. Her father was also an Admiral, but not just any admiral, he was the head of the Admiralty Board; one of two of the democratic political parties of the fleet, the admiralty handling military matters and the Conclave, their second political party, the majority of politics. Shala'Raan was Admiral of the Patrol Fleet, while Han'Gerrel, her father's best friend, was Admiral of the Heavy Fleet, the Flotilla's mishmash navy of sorts, while Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib was Admiral of the Civilian Fleet and Daro'Xen vas Moreh was admiral of Special Projects, which Raan had told her wasn't really a fleet, but a jumble of science vessels put under Xen's command.

The board was divided when it came to the matter of the geth, with Xen in her insanity wanting to 'retake' control of the geth, Han'Gerrel wanting to wage total war on them, Zaal'Koris wanting to find a new world to colonize and her mother remaining neutral, but she swore she could smell some 'Koris' wearing off on her. Her father, Rael'Zorah, was also a unknown, many believing his relationship with Gerrel suggested he was siding with total conflict, while others thought his status as a scientist put him firmly under Xen's crazy policies.

"He...said he was busy and told me to tell you that he wishes you good luck on your pilgrimage and to stay safe" Shala stated with a almost sad note, as if she felt the pang of frustration in Tali's mind. Tali's father had never been a loving one. It wasn't that her father was strict. No, he was a Admiral, which he thought meant that his daughter wasn't as important to him, and he completely ignored her in terms of work. It wasn't fair. She wanted to feel loved, to feel like she had a family that cared, but ever since Meru died, Rael had become more and more distant until he finally isolated himself from his daughter, ignoring her at every turn.

"Of course he did. He...never really did...care." She had tried to keep the animosity out of her voice, but had failed in the end, giving in to her compulsions. She felt so angry to be ignored the way she was, to be completely cut off from her only source of actual family. Shala was the only form of family she was going to get these days. And now it was time for her pilgrimage, the most important day of her life, and her father couldn't even be bothered to see her off from that.

"Don't mean to rush you ma'am, but the fleet will be hitting the relay soon and I recommend due haste. Might as well hit the relay before the fleet so that we gain headway. I've marked a planet located just inside the Hades Nexus. Perfect place to begin a search for something worthwhile. Rest is up to you kiddo, I'm just here to oversee your protection." Keenah stated in a singular tone, his voice devoid of any emotion.

That's what it was like to be a Migrant Fleet Marine. All discipline, no time for play or fraterization. Straight down to business. It was something only two men she knew had; Kal'Reegar and Han'Gerrel, the former being a childhood friend and now a marine himself, the latter being a ex-Marine and now in charge of the whole quarian military. Tali looked at Keenah and smiled warmly behind her mask, not that anyone could see it, before turning back to Shala.

"Keenah's right. We should get going." Shala's nod was all Tali saw from the woman as she turned to follow Keenah through the airlock, the door sliding open and revealing the contents of the small makeshift shuttle. Tali was fiddling with her hands again. She was anxious to get out and explore the galaxy, to meet new people and discover places she could never have imagined.

In was a new chapter in her life, one she wished to cherish when she returned with her pilgrimage gift. She felt the door close behind her as she followed Keenah through the storage compartment and into the cockpit, taking her place in the seat next to him. The shuttle was illuminated in a dim blue light, the numerous control panels lit with orange light streaming khelish, her people's native language, across its terminals. Shala's voice came through the speakers.

"Ride safely, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. May the ancestors guide you to what you seek. Keelah Se'lai."

She watched as Keenah initiated preflight checks and disconnected the docking tube, the shuttle flying away from the Rayya, the ship she called her home, and towards the huge mass relay that lay just ahead of the fleet, the one the relay would begin its journey through.

_And where my journey would begin._

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	3. Chapter 1 League Of Their Own

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER ONE:**

**LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN**

_June 8, 2183_

_0507 hours_

_Flight Deck, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Plantia Shipyard orbiting Earth, Sol System._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Commanding Officer Captain David Edward Anderson. _

"Welcome to the Normandy commander." Anderson's words to him felt like a noise in the background as Marcus stood out of the airlock and into the magnificent ship that the Alliance claimed as their own. To the left of the airlock was the cockpit, as most frigates and corvettes were too small for a bridge, so instead they used a cockpit with usually one main pilot and two co-pilots.

The main pilot's seat sat in the front of the cockpit, directly in the middle. A single, large seat sat in front of the main panel, the pilot obviously sat in it, but the majority of his body was covered by the large seat, orange holographic panels lay in front of him, the multiple panels flying across as his hands danced on the terminal. Two smaller seats lay on his right and left, with one to the pilot's right occupied by Kaidan, while the left one was the captain's chair; Anderson's. Two more seats lay at the back, one sitting on the left and facing the same direction, the other on the right and doing the same, both unoccupied. To his right was the flight deck; a long corridor that ran for 5-6 meters and on each side was 5 more terminals, all occupied, the multiple pilots executing their assigned tasks. The next section of the ship was amazing.

The Flight deck continued until it sprawled out into a large circular room, 10 by 10 by guess, with three support struts on the left and right, all with holographic panels. The middle of the room was occupied by a single large table, the table surrounded by multiple holopanels and in the middle, a single, large hologram of the galaxy, a galaxy map if he guessed correctly, glowing with the vibrant white of the milky way. This must be where the commanding officer decided the destination of the vessel. A single raised platform stood at the rear of the table, obviously the captain's.

The design was that of a turian vessel; turians preferred to have their superiors looking down on their subordinates and since the Normandy was a joint turian-human effort, it made sense to utilize turian design in its creation. The very rear of the room sported a large support bulkhead that had the initials 'SR1' written in bold lettering, but it was obvious a room of sorts; likely a briefing room, was located behind it. Two doors flanked the room on the left and right, most likely leading into an armoury or possibly the lower decks. He turned back to Anderson, who seemed to be smiling smugly at the commander's awe.

"This is the Combat Information Center, or CIC for short. This deck sports the Briefing Center, the galaxy map, flight deck and cockpit. There are three decks; this deck, the Crew Deck and the Cargo Hold/Engineering. Let me introduce you to our pilot. I think you'll like him." Marcus nodded as he followed Anderson into the cockpit, the man stopping next to the pilot's seat. He could see the man turn his head to the captain, obviously awaiting new orders. After a few whispered words, the pilot turned towards him, allowing him a full view.

The first thing noticable was that he had a shortly cropped beard, brown in color, but it wasn't large or puffy, but developing. He wore a dark navy blue cap with the initials 'SR1' on the front, and he also wore standard flight lieutenant's uniform. His half-muscular arms lay on the arm rests, gripping them as if looking at Marcus would cause him to fly out of it. The man had green irises, giving him an eery appearence. The man was smiling.

"So, this is the new XO huh Captain? I'm Joker, the main pilot and only pilot of the ship. She's my baby, so you want to mess her you'll be messing with me." The man named Joker stated firmly with a sense of pride he'd never seen in pilots his age. He was devoted, that much was certain, but the man's attitude was something of a worry. He wasn't one for formality, as he hadn't even bothered to mention his rank, which meant he was like Marcus; to hell with formality. Anderson chuckled as he looked back at Marcus.

"Joker was the nickname we gave him. You'll find out why later." Anderson eyed Joker with a look that said 'real name, now.' That got the man's attention, he seemed to immediately melt under the gaze and give in.

"Right, right, right. Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau. People call me Joker because it sounds less cliche than 'Jeff' or 'Jeffrey' and I like to make little children laugh," the last bit seemed to be sarcasm on the pilot's part, which almost caused even Marcus to chuckle, "And I want you to remember this. I'm not good, hell, I'm not great, I'm the best damn helmsman in the Alliance fleet!" Marcus raised both brows at the pilot, who seemed to be radiating with narciscism or self-pride. Anderson leaned in and whispered, "He has a bit of a ego." Marcus chuckled in a 'you don't say' kind of manner, following Anderson's motions towards the Galaxy map, where they fast approached a tall and steardy man, obviously in his fifties or sixties by his grey 'abraham lincoln' style beard, his eyes a dark brown.

He wore customary Alliance uniform, dark navy blue with the grey bars of a Master Chief Petty Officer. The man turned, smiling as he did and he saluted with a brisk straight up. "Captain Anderson, I assume this is our new XO?" Seeing Anderson nod, Marcus took the man's hand and shook it, smiling as he did.

"Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, N7, Executive Officer of the Normandy. Pleasure to meet you, Master Chief." The man nodded and smiled, the man seemed to be one of the 'professional, no bullshit types' that Marcus really didn't like, as they were all hardasses, but this man seemed geniunely kind inside.

"Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Pressly, Navigator on the Normandy. I was the original Executive Officer on the ship and the pleasure is all mine commander. I was on the Agincourt as its navigator when we left FTL over Elysium. We were the first ship to respond to your distress call." Marcus acknowledged the man's words with a nod, surprised that Pressly just happened to be involved in the biggest battle of his life.

Why were all these people here? Its not that he hated them or anything, but why all these professonal men and women for a simple shakedown run? Alot of the numbers didn't add up, and he wanted to know what was going on. He would ask Anderson later.

"Nice to meet you Pressly, I hope we can work well together as a team." Marcus reached his hand out again and met the navigator's firm grip, releasing it as he followed Anderson through the left door. He was right the second time; the door opened up to a stairwell that spiralled right down onto the second deck, which Anderson called the Crew Deck. Once on the bottom he noticed that the stairs were glowing and when he looked down, noticed they had lights on each stair that glowed pure blue. The walls were laced with silver titantium, the blue light of the stairs playing on their features.

To the left of the stairwell's end was a screen that displayed news reports, tactical data, the ship's current status; whether it was on Priority Red which meant battlestations or Priority Yellow which meant weapons ready etc. To the right was both mess hall entrances, seperated by a single elevator in the middle that must have lead to the third and final deck of the frigate. Shepard followed Anderson through the corridor and into the Mess Hall, but that wasn't the only part of the crew deck available for him to see.

In the middle of the mess hall area was a large table, numerous crew members seated at it, nimbling away at food rations and protein bars. A large appendage lay on the ceiling, two orange, holopanels erected from it, displaying to the seated people numerous data and statistics, keeping them updated on the status of the outside world. The table was cut off from the rest of the room by two large support struts on its rear, large and made of hard titantium, like the rest of the ship interior. On the bulkhead opposite the struts and seperating the elevator from the mess hall was once again the same initials of 'SR1'. The entire area was illuminated in rich, orange light, almost eery at some points.

To the right of the room was the Medical Bay, with no windows but a single, horizontally sliding door like the ones at the stairs at its entrance, and on the left wall of it, numerous lockers for the crew. Opposite the medical bay on the left side of the deck was Anderson's cabin, or the Captain's Cabin, which held much the same design; single door with lockers on its right side. The middle rear of the room held a corridor similiar to the flight deck, but instead held 10 sleeper pods on each side; small pods with a tightly packed bed inside and glass on the exterior.

At the end of this corridor was a single control panel, presumably operating fire control measures and evacuation. Laced around the sides of the room were the hatches that lead to escape pods, not that the speedy frigate would need to use them any time soon, but it was always good to have a quick evacuation plan.

Upon finishing his examination of the crew deck, Anderson led him into the medbay, the form of a woman, presumably the chief medical officer on the ship, approached them, holding up her omni-tool; a glowing orange interface that was projected as a hologram over the arm and attacked as the portable successor to the iPod, Laptop and other personal devices that originally acquired a power socket.

This omni-tool was a medical variant, and once the woman had finished with it, she looked up and greeted Anderson with a warm smile. The woman was like Pressly, she was old but not an antique. Her hair was combed and held the silvery streaks of age and her face showed signs of aging such as wrinkles and darkened skin, but aside from that she looked closer to forty then she did sixty.

Examining her posture more closely it was evident she'd been working in the medical department for decades, and had become a full-time expert in her field. Another professional on a shakedown run. What was going on? Her standard issue medical uniform held the same pure white color and red stripes of any medical officer in Alliance. She looked at Shepard, and held out her hand, her warm smile unwavering.

"Commander Marcus Shepard, I'm Chief Medical Officer Karin Chakwas. I run everything medical on the ship, as my rank signifies for you. I just want you to know that my patient's wellbeing means everything to me and I don't care how stubborn they are, I do insist on treating them and nursing them back to health." Marcus smiled back as he realized Dr. Chakwas was definitely another one to take her job seriously, but she did it with the same kind of demeanour Joker carried. She was kind, friendly and sometimes, if not as frequent as their pilot, sarcastic at times. Marcus could definitely get used to this kind of crew arrangement.

"Nice to meet you doctor. Talk again soon?" Marcus asked in the most friendly voice he could muster. He wasn't terrible at being friendly and social, but he wasn't exactly marvelous at it either.

"I'd like that, commander. When your done meeting the crew, I'd like to perform a medical examination on you. We do it with all new crew members so we know what their medical needs are such as medication, prescriptions, all sorts." With that, the woman named Karin Chakwas returned to her desk, enthralling herself back into the world of biology and anatomy. Or maybe examining the data on her omni-tool.

Before they left, Shepard took note of the medical bay around him. The room was illuminated in a dark blue light, what would be considered creepy to most, while the left wall was lined with medbeds with numerous machines around them. The right was occupied by X-Ray images and Karin's desk, while the end of the room occupied a second door, leading presumably to a second office or storage area. Upon leaving, they immediately entered the elevator at a brisk pace.

The elevator ride was agonizingly slow; pathetic considering modern technology had the ability to create faster elevators than this. You'd think this far into the future they'd have designed a elevator that could travel at a decent speed. Once they finally arrived on the third deck, they watched as the door slid downwards and they were greeted by the cargo hold.

The room was dark but not pitch black, with the large form of a M-35 Mako; a heavily-armed all-terrain fighting vehicle close to tank-like status but with the speed of a 21st century humvee, occupying the right of the room, a small terminal lying next to it; unoccupied, empty. Behind the mako and to the very right of the elevator lay a single desk surrounded with computers and terminals and a single Alliance officer, wearing alliance uniform and a cap similiar to Joker's, sitting behind it.

Upon Anderson's explanation, he learned it was the requisitions officer, who could purchase liscenes for the numerous companies that construct omni-tools, armor, weapons and grenades. Not to mention weapon mods. Occupying the left of the room was a small, makeshift armoury, with two benches lined up with an assortment of weapons that make room next to the lockers.

Many of the lockers were empty except for the three closest to the benches labelled, 'Shepard', 'Kaidan' and 'Jenkins'. Shepard was pleased to note that Shepard's preferred weapons; a Assault Rifle for medium range encounters and a shotgun for close quarters was located safely in his locker, a Diamond Back AR model and a Armageddon model Shotgun, both devastating weapons.

Next to the bench stood what looked like a very excited young soldier, a marine by the looks and a corporal by the look of his armor, and he wore what looked like a british beret, laying lopsided on his head. The soldier had a huge smile on his face as they approached.

"Commander Shepard! Lance Corporal Richard Lenard Jenkins, I'm a member of your ground squad! It is such an honor to meet you! I heard about all those things you did on Eden Prime and Elysium and I can't wait to see you in action!" The excited corporal named Jenkins stated in almost rapidfire.

Marcus simply chuckled, "Don't get too excited, I'm still getting used to working onboard a ship. I got used to working planetside all the time. I feel safer when I'm not. Keeps me on my toes. Don't worry Jenkins, you and I? We're are soldiers, and we fight where it hurts the enemy most; on the ground. That's where wars are really won, not in space, but on the ground, in the neck of it." Jenkins seemed to get even more hysterical. He was like a little child, nodding like a kid that had gotten his first toy, his smile just as large. With a final salute, the corporal returned to his work bench and Anderson motioned Shepard down one of the many passages behind the cargo bay, moving down into the bowels of the vessel.

Exiting through the door, Marcus was welcomed by a gigantic, and majestic, sight. Engineering. Numerous engineers moved about their work space as they tapped at the numerous orange glowing terminals at the presipice, while the biggest engine core lay at the back, the biggest drive core he'd ever seen. He simply gaped in awe.

"Impressive isn't it? That's the Tantalus Drive Core, one of the biggest and most advanced drive cores on any Alliance ship. When in stealth mode, it collects all our tachyon emissions and traps them in a sink in the ship's engines to keep us invisible to enemy sensors. Sensors rely on the emissions released by the ship to detect us but trap those emissions, and boom, we're are like the red october." Marcus' eyes moved to the source of the voice and saw a young figure, a man in dark navy blue alliance uniform with the insignia of Chief Engineer emblazoned on his chest.

His hair was cropped like Anderson's, but sported a more brownish color while his face was a mix between light brown and pink. Anderson smiled as the man finished his approach, reaching out his hand to Shepard to shake.

"Chief Engineer Gregory Adams, I run the engineering staff here on the Normandy. You're Commander Shepard, I presume?" Marcus nodded as he gripped the man's hand, Adams responding with an equally tight grip. Marcus smiled back.

"You know your stuff Adams?" he asked.

Adams laughed, "I've served on every class of Alliance ship, from Jerusalem-Class Corvettes to Everest-Class Dreadnoughts. You name it, I've served on it. My latest posting was a Wolverine-Class Heavy Cruiser, the SSV Tokyo. Now I'm here, one of the most advanced warships built by the alliance. Its an honor to serve under Captain Anderson. I'm considered the best engineer in the Alliance fleet." Marcus sighed to nobody but himself. Another professional. On a Shakedown Run. So they had the best pilot the alliance had to offer, the navigator involved in the Elysium liberation, a expert medical officer, a jibbery alliance soldier, a sentinel, a turian spectre, a N7 veteran, a Mako speedy tank and finally; a long-time serving alliance engineer.

So many professionals and dedicated officers; all a simple test run. None of it added up at all. Not to mention they had the hero of Eden Prime and Elysium onboard as XO. That just added even more 'what the fuck' to the equation. Whatever was going on, he was sure he'd find out soon.

"It was nice to meet you Adams." Marcus stated as he followed Anderson out of engineering, the chief engineer giving a parting salute as they left, entering the elevator for the Crew Deck.

"What do you think of our crew, Commander?" Anderson asked, breaking the silence of the annoyingly slow elevator ride.

"I think they have no idea what's really going on." Marcus stated. All Anderson did was look at him bewildered. His question didn't need verbal application. It was evident in his features. He had asked his question, just not verbally.

"You know what I mean sir. There's something else going on. Why the spectre? The Alliance's top pilot, doctor and engineer? The navigator involved with Elysium? A Sentinel? You? Me? These men and women are all worthy of serving in a small, indestructible army. Why are we needed on the world's most advanced warship to aid with a simple test run? What aren't you telling us?" He knew his question was probably invalid and insubordination, but he didn't care. Marcus was the kind of man who only acted when he had all the variables, and when he didn't, well, events like Eden Prime and Elysium happen. He needed to know.

"I can't tell you Shepard. All I can tell you is that the Alliance wants to keep you in the dark for now. Just be patient." Anderson said with a concluding tone, hoping that put a resolution to the conversation before it became heated.

"Yes sir" was Marcus' only answer as the Crew Deck elevator door opened. Joker's voice came through the comm, "Captain, Alliance Control has given us permission to disembark. We're we headed?" the pilot finished with a terrible attempt at a texan accent.

"Once we're disembarked, hit the Sol Relay and set a course for Eden Prime, one half speed. Tell Nihlus I want to meet him in my office." With that, Anderson sent Marcus off to unpack his things while he talked with Nihlus in his cabin. He and Kaidan shared a soldier-to-soldier to conversation and he got to know Kaidan a bit more before retiring to his sleeper pod for the night, sealing the hatch with a hiss as he closed his eyes to sleep.

_Eden Prime? The colony where my career began? Coincidence maybe? No, something is going on and I intend to find out what._

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_June 12, 2183 (Translated Khelish Time)_

_Nineteenth Hour, Sixteen Minutes._

_Forestation Area, South-Eastern Continent, Southern Hemisphere, Gei Hinnom._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Marine Escort Keenah'Butras vas Rayya._

"Stay right behind me ma'am, I'll keep you safe. We must vacate immediately." Keenah's warning and orders reined hollow in the quarian woman's head as she ignored him and pulled out her Katana model shotgun as she ran forward and through the undergrowth. Keenah shouted at her with words of objection, but she didn't listen, her suit ripping through the thick canopies of rich green plantations and slid past the tall tree trunks. The signal was coming from directly ahead, and if what Keenah said was true, and it was indeed geth, she intended to kill one and bring back its body as her pilgrimage gift.

Not only would it allow people like Xen and her father to develop countermeasures against the geth, but it would also allow her people a shot at retaking the homeworld. She could be the quarian to end three hundred years of exile. She would first extract its memory core and see what it had to offer and then later take it back to the Neema, the ship she wished to join. Han'Gerrel, the Neema's captain, would be very pleased and most certainly accept her gift of resources.

What was odd was that; geth outside the Perseus Veil. The geth hadn't left the cluster since exiling her people and now Keenah and herself had found a squad of them in the Hades Nexus. Tali was not only eager to earn her place in the fleet, but looking in the memory core and discovering why the geth were so far from home would quench her curiosity. Against a squad of geth she wouldn't stand a chance.

Even with training from Kal, possibly the best marine in the flotilla, and being proficient with tech and her shotgun, she would be hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, not to mention outclassed due to the geth's networked intelligence; the more geth together the better their tactical effiency and intelligence. A whole squad would slaughter her before she could fire a single slug. But if she could seperate one from its unit...Keenah and herself could easily cripple it.

That's providing Keenah got over his objections. From the sound of what was happening behind her however, it was evident he had given into her insistence; that or he was following just to keep her protected. Being an Admiral's daughter and friends with a well known flotillian marine not only got her the best training, but as a liability, it put pressure on her. Alot was expected of her.

Bringing a geth back to the fleet, hopefully that would finally regain her father's attention, allow him to open up to her and be a real father. The father she needed him to be. She knew these dreams were childish at best, and most of all selfish, but what more could a woman ask for? The forest began to thin out as she neared the edge of the clearing, and she could hear Keenah's heavy breathing as he ran alongside her, desperately trying to keep up with her feminine speed.

Her shotgun also fell up and down with her hands as they continued running and running, the bright sun of Gei Hinnom burning brightly through the treetops. Looking to her right, she could finally see Keenah, Raptor assault rifle in both hands, sprinting right alongside her, his look barren as he concentrated on usurping all his energy into keeping up with the young girl, watching out for traps and tripups as any marine would.

Tali had to force herself into stopping when she noticed the final clearing; a large 5 meter drop into the ravine below. She slid to a stop, as did Keenah, right at the edge, kicking up bits of dirt and rocks, dust collecting in a fine mist as it fell over the edge of the cliff, dipping into the large ravine down below. Tali scanned the area below with her eyes. The area below was barren, with no trace of the forest plantation they had left behind them. More forest laced the area opposite them, but apart from that, nothing but simple barren dirtfields, going on for a mile to her left.

But then she saw it, right out in the open, clear as day, a dozen of them in formation walking to the west, moving in a single swarm like a pack of _Iozi. _Geth. Tali had had nightmares about the synthetics day and night when she was child; slaughtering defenseless quarian men, women and children as they attempted to run from the artifical murderers, entire ships burning up in the atmosphere of Rannoch as geth cruisers shot them down. These robotic labor machines had been turned into ruthless, emotionless killing machines and murdered billions of her people.

What had once been a population of twenty-two billion quarians on Rannoch, had been reduced to seventeen million on the Flotilla; the last quarians in existence. That number would never grow due to the fleet's zero population growth policy. Each family was only allowed a single child, which is why noone had brothers or sisters, not biologically anyway. Kal'Reegar to her was what she considered a brother, they had had so many fun times in their childhood.

The geth moved along the plains like predators, scoping the landscape for their prey. The galaxy had nicknamed them 'flashlight heads', and for good reason. Geth were mostly built to look like quarians; their bodies and legs were arched in much the same fashion, back arched forwards while legs are arched backwards. They also had three-fingers and three toes, but that is where the similiaraties ended.

The geth main body was a hard-metal casing made of solid titantium, while their insides were incased with neural nodes, synthetic processors, numerous hard drives and a single memory core which was wiped of all data upon the geth platform's expiration. A skilled quarian however, one like her, could easily save the data. The head was essentially a huge flashlight, with numerous flaps on the top that would move and twist whenever the unit was communing with other platforms, while its flashlight head glowed a deep, bright blue.

The armor casing of the geth folded over the optics (the flashlight) like a protective hood. The geth were networked intelligence, which meant none of them were individuals; each individual platform housed thousands of individual geth programs, all operating on the same runtime. Destroying the individual platform they are using won't kill them, as they can simply upload themselves into another platform.

There are merriads of different geth variants, but the variant she was looking at was a standard trooper variants. There were drones and even 'armature-class' units, which were essentially moving, thinking, geth tanks, but aside from that, the rest was unknown. The geth also possessed a powerful fleet, but from what she knew, those ships were run individually and without a crew.

She watched as the emotionless trooper platforms steadily marched past, oblivious to their enemy's presence. The geth weren't like stereotypical robots; they had no built-in arm cannons or weapons of any sort, as they were originally built for labor and then became cannon fodder for the now defunct quarian republican military. The geth held weapons just like any organic would.

Their particular weapon utilized the same geth architecture, smooth and sleek. The weapon the ones they saw were using was a model the quarians called 'geth pulse rifles', which were geth assault rifles that fired a type of slug they had never seen before. The bullets fired weren't actual plasma, but it fired metal slugs that were superheated and fired at such a velocity, they could penetrate even the heaviest of combat armor and penetrate the strongest of shields.

The amount of rounds fired by the weapon was also astonishing, as was the geth's unusual use of ammunition; instead of utilizing the normal, modern weapon systems that utilized a mass accellerator that could keep firing before overheating and needing to cooldown, the geth used what were dubbed 'thermal clips' that were essentially ammo, which not only meant the geth could use their weapons more efficiently and expodentially, but it also meant that the risk of the weapon 'breaking' and 'exploding' was greatly decreased.

The design of geth architecture was some what creepy, the synthetics utilizing a insectoid design with their ships and weapons. After doing her research on human history, she had learned that the geth ships were much like a praying mantis in shape, while the pulse rifle looked more like a cockroach. Even geth attack formations mirrored insects, with geth naval blockades being compared to 'stunt fliers in formation.'

The pulse rifle was a dull silvery grey in color, while the design was sleek and insectoid. As weird as the weapon was, the deadly accuracy and firepower of it was something to fret, and getting her hands on one of those geth depended on getting past that defense. She continued to examine the geth, their numerous platforms making clicking and mechanical noises as they communicated; as the geth don't talk.

She noticed a particulary lone geth trooper, a shock trooper by the milky white color of its body casing, wagging behind the squad at least four meters away, seemingly scouting the rear. It wasn't long before she noticed the shock trooper looking straight at them. Keenah noticed this sooner, but by the time he pulled her into cover it was too late and the shock trooper had spotted them. She could hear the sound of crunching vegetation as the platform approached them.

"Keelah! I told you we should have taken the shuttle and left!" Keenah exclaimed, checking his rifle as he did, making sure to switch to incendiary rounds. Tali's shotgun had already switched to disruptor rounds, while she opened her omni-tool and prepared an overload program her father conjured up to overload an enemy's shielding. Not only did it work wonders on what it was designed to do, but it also messed with a synthetic's internal systems, and hopefully the same could be said for a certain geth shock trooper that was approaching them.

Keenah's frustrated statement seemed to echo the annoyance into Tali herself, who held her pistol in a position that would place it straight at the geth's optics or 'flashlight' head as many preferred to call it. She shot a glare at Keenah, which was visible even through the mask.

"And abandon this oppurtunity, you bosh'tet? This could be the key to completing my pilgrimage! A intact geth platform would be invaluable to our attempts at retaking the homeworld! I could be the one to put us back on Rannoch!" Tali realized how selfish her ambitions were, how she had stated it like a woman wanting the fame, but she didn't. She was doing this for her people, not for herself. The fame could go to hell, she was here to make quarian history, to be the one that gave her people the chance to live without suits again, to see her father's face, to...to...have that house on Rannoch her father promised them...

But that had been when her mother was alive but now she was gone, never coming back, forever in the embrace of the ancestors. Maybe if she died today, she might see Meru again, to enjoy the warmth of her hugs that she enjoyed during childhood. The thoughts were thrown away when she heard the familiar mechanical noise of the shock trooper, so close now she swore it was right above them. How right she was.

Looking up she was now staring down the trooper's rifle sights, looking into the emotionless machine's bright blue optics. It was ready to blow her head off, but it never got the chance. Shots rang out as Keenah fired his rifle straight into the geth's chest casing, the shots pinging of its barriers, shields flickering blue in the air as the bullets fell harmlessly to the ground.

The geth decided Keenah was a more lethal target, and switched targets. But she had a shotgun. As the geth turned to face Keenah and bared its rifle on the unlucky marine, she activated her omni-tool and tapped the overload icon as she pointed it directly at the geth. A burst of bright, blue electricity, wrapped over the shock trooper, shields exploding in bright blue light as the trooper tumbled left, rifle still held firmly in its grip as it quickly turned back to Tali with effiency only a machine was capable of. Too late. Tali had her shotgun bared and squeezed the trigger, a large metal slug smashing into its machine chasis, chunks of armor shooting in multiple directions as the geth fell to the ground in silence, pulse rifle clattering to the ground. Now wasn't the time to celebrate her victory however. She had to recover the memory core before it was completely wiped.

"Quickly Keenah! We have to retrieve that memory core!" She shouted as she slid her shotgun into the horizontal strap on the back of her waist, moving to position herself to the left of the now unmoving geth shock trooper, its glowing blue optics no longer pulsing, but just a blackened, dark, shattered optic. Keenah quickly fixed his raptor assault rifle to the right magnetic clamp on his back, the replacement for holsters, before moving to the right, awaiting his escort's orders. Not waiting for Keenah, she immediately reached into the geth's chest cavatity, reaching her hand around inside for the memory core. Following her training, she found the latch for the memory core and released it, ripping the core out of the chest and onto the grass.

It was glowing blue in color, multiple stripes running along the cylinder. She watched as Keenah held the core still and she brought out her omni-tool, directly interfacing it with the memory core. She needed to hurry before all the data was deleted. Beginning the upload, she watched as bits of data steadily disappear. Most of it was stuff she didn't need, hard drive runtimes, geth collective intelligence processes, and other mundane stuff. It didn't take long for the upload to complete, but by the time she had finished, seventy-one percent of the shock trooper's memory was purged.

"Damn it! I only managed to retrieve twenty-nine percent of the memory. Let me check what's on it." Tali wasn't exactly happy about the data she recovered. She was expecting at least fifty percent, but in the end she had gotten just over a quarter of the memory. It would have to do however. As she activated her omni-tool, a full list of all the things she had recovered from the core came up, with over a hundred and twenty items. One however, one very specific one, caught her absolute attention. It was a voice file, one that must have held special significance if a geth had decided to keep it in its memory files. Scanning the file she found results for two people involved in the recording, a unknown female and a man named 'Saren'.

"Let's hear it." Keenah's voice came over her shoulder, obviously having watched her the entire time. Tali nodded and brought up the file, listening intently. The voice that came through was intimidating, definitely turian and partly synthetic, as if the turian had spoken with the hybrid of a geth.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." The man named Saren's voice came through the omni-tool in a loud drone, proclaiming his victory like a great general would after winning a huge battle.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." The feminine voice was just as intimidating, if not slightly attractive. The sultry accent hinted towards a asari, but the raspy voice meant she was quite advanced in age. Whoever the Reapers, Eden Prime, the beacon or this conduit was, it was going to be bad news if this Saren and the asari woman got there hands on them. And if a turian had managed to get an entire geth army under his command; he must have been a powerful authoritive figure.

"Eden Prime! That's a human colony in the Attican Traverse! I'm not sure what this 'Conduit', 'Reapers' or 'Beacon' are though." Keenah stated. Tali nodded, not in agreement, but acknowledgment. If Saren had attacked a human colony with a army of geth that could only mean a geth invasion was in motion, which meant the galaxy was being attacked unaware. They needed to be warned, and fast.

Her pilgrimage would have to wait, galactic security and safety was in perilious danger was the thousands of colonies out there. Looking deeper into the file, she found information about the Reapers and brought it up. She didn't like what she saw. Apparently they were a race of sentient machines that wiped out the Protheans; the race that created the mass relays, citadel and all the technology the galaxy is based off, fifty thousand years ago, leaving no trace of their existence before vanishing. The geth seem to worship the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of synthetic life.

"Keelah! If this turian has an entire geth army at his command the entire galaxy could be at risk! We have to warn the authorities!" Tali exclaimed, forgetting the dead shock trooper as she got up and began to speed walk back to their shuttle. Keenah seemed to follow behind her obediently, allowing her to set the pace. Then she spoke up, "Agreed. We can go to Ilium. Its an asari colony in the Tasale System, Cresent Nebula.

Deep in the Terminus Systems, but their one of the many colonies in that sector that have a government authority and proper security forces. They can provide us protection while we hand over the information." Tali simply nodded as they continued through the forest back towards the shuttle landing zone, hoping the trooper they killed hadn't managed to send out a distress call to its fellow platforms.

No, if it had they would have been swarmed already. Or they could be waiting at the shuttle. No, the geth were intelligent but not intelligent enough to set up an ambush. The machines didn't think outside the box, they were programmed to think inside it. But as AI, they might have evolved further than that. These geth weren't simple VI, they were smart enough to evolve past their basic programming.

Tali and Keenah eventually broke into a run. If a geth galactic invasion really was imminent, then the galaxy needed to know now.

And not to far away, on a distant mountain, a single turian stood watching them, a man by the name of Jacobus, who continued to watch as they kept running towards their shuttle. He keyed his comm, his orange omni-pad forming around his palm.

"I want a ship prepared. I will pursue that shuttle and destroy it. Once marooned on Illium, I will kill the suit-rats myself."

And with that, the quarians, obliviously, began the run for their lives.

**{Loading...}**

_June 12, 2183_

_1357 hours._

_Captain Entricas' Office, C-Sec Headquarters, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian_

Red-tape here, red-tape there. Everywhere he went, he saw enough red-tape to sink a turian Tormentor-Class Cruiser. Citadel Security, or C-Sec for short, was nothing short of a bullshit organization. None of the captains Garrus served under had the balls to do what needed to be done. To gun down the criminals of society. Instead, it was regulations first, lives last. If anything, Garrus would rather be a viglante than a detective; at least they got the job done. Garrus had always been a fan of the Spectres, as they got to do just that, kill in the name of justice and not have cuffs appear on your wrists. But his father, Thotous Vakarian, was a huge fan of the law and despised the spectres, frustrated by their ability to basically be legal criminals.

Thotous was once a veteran in C-Sec, an experienced police officer, and Garrus had been raised to join them. And so he grew up being a law-abiding citizen and eventually, a terrible cop, policing the Shalta Wards of the majestic Citadel. It was overrated of course. 'Upholding the law' with C-Sec meant 'let criminals walk' in the real world. If Garrus had the ability, he would walk up to Executor Palin, the director of C-Sec, himself and tell him that his organization was corrupted. Thus far, C-Sec had let criminals like Fist, Dr. Saleon, Ricky and many others walk uncuffed, alive and free when they should be dead or locked up.

But it wasn't Garrus' place to decide, he was here to do his job and not fiddle about. He wanted to make his father proud, not himself. He even sacrificed his chance to become a Spectre for the chance of impressing his father.

But now Garrus was back in C-Sec HQ, walking through the dark blue corridors of the facility as he approached his captain's office, his latest disagreement ready to be shot at him. Once again a criminal had been allowed to walk, a krogan male named Jax, who had been selling illegal weapon permits on the black market, and when Garrus had arrested the man, Entricas had petitioned to have him released due to 'lack of evidence to convict.'

The krogan was a criminal just by being krogan. Krogan had been known as a naturally violent species, even eclipsing the batarians. They were large, hulking and two legged tanks, packing a whopping five hundred pound weight, with their species being largely reptillian. Their teeth were canines, while their lower jaw stuck out under the upper jaw. Their skin was covered in a leathery hide, with a large crest on their head, circulating bloodflow all over the krogan's forehead. They were much like hunchbacks, with their back reaching up behind their heads, arching in a triangular fashion.

They had large, three-fingered hands, with bulky, sharp talons for their feet. Walking tank wasn't an exaggeration either. Their bodies were built to withstand horrendous punishment, as they had the unusual ability to regenerate tissue; they could practically heal themselves, but the ability could only be used every hour, due to the repairing tissue needing to regenerate itself. This made them self-healing tanks, with a redundant nervous system that allowed them to breathe for huge amounts of time without oxygen. A unique species, but given their history, they weren't very lucky.

The krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, was a desert planet that had once teemed with krogan life and large cities, but after the krogan evolved and developed nuclear weapons, they used their weapons to wage civil war, which ended in a vast nuclear winter that lasted a decade and leaving Tuchanka a barren wasteland. During the Rachni Wars, the Council knew they couldn't defeat the Rachni themselves, as the hives were too toxic, but a species with a redundant nervous system...perfect for the job. So the salarians, a amphibious species, decided to uplift the krogan from their devolved state and use them as weapons to destroy the Rachni; and they worked to significant effect. The krogan stormed Rachni hives and decimated them, resulting in the Rachni's eventual extinction. However, the krogan were unlike any other species; they bred VERY quickly, 5,000 children per birth.

That's five thousand children given birth to by a single pregnant krogan female. This mass breeding ended with the krogan population spiralling out of control, colonies becoming flooded in years. The krogan demanded more worlds to colonize, but the Council ignored them, resulting in the Krogan Rebellions. Seeing the krogan as unstoppable, the salarians developed a horrible genetic weapon called the genophage; a virus that rewrote a krogan female's reproduction code, randomizing it so that only one out of every 1,000 births survived into the world, resulting in zero population growth.

The salarians then gave it to the turians, who deployed it on every krogan colony and Tuchanka. Within a few years, the krogan populace was so horribly effected that the Council forces were able to finally push them back to Tuchanka, demilitarizing them by taking away their fleet and leaving them with nothing; a once proud race reduced to a batarian state, and even they got better, as the krogan were basically thrown back to what human's called the 'Industrial Revolution' stage. Now the krogan's made a living by becoming mercenaries or killing each other.

Krogan like Jax weren't a rarity, but he certainly intended to make sure he was used as a example. Entricas' actions might have well been a sign that said 'all krogan are free to provide weapons to criminal. In return we expect you do not provoke our local viglante.' Yeah, well Garrus was anything but a by the books turian. Many would call him a 'bad turian,' and who's to say he wasn't proud of it? He wasn't going to live up to some turian stereotype just to please some alien stranger. He was unique, he didn't care if that was good or bad, as long as he got the job done; even if it meant the bastard had to die. That's how the law really works. But Entricas', being a fellow turian, just had his head so far into his regulation paperwork that he was to blind to see it. Hopefully that would change. Today.

Garrus finally rounded the final corridor to his left and entered Entricas' office, the turian seated behind his desk doing the usual work; regulation forms, assignments, recruit dossiers, the usual mundane work. The turian wore the yellow and green face paint of the colony of Librus, a colony seated in the Vipress Nebula. The facepaint for turians was symbolism adopted after the Unification War; a civil war that occured long before the turians admission into the council, in which most of the colonies declared independence from the hierarchy of Palaven.

The war was resolved with all colonies gaining independence from Palaven, but still answering to the same meritocratical government. So was born, the facepaint. Garrus wore no facepaint, as turians born on Palaven had no need for it, but in the end Garrus simply didn't like the idea of the facepaint; he saw it as labelling yourself as the property of that colony, like a weapon was to its owner. Symbolism his turian ass.

Clearing his throat, he saw Entricas look up at him and roll his eyes. Garrus growled, which caught Entricas' attention tenfold, causing him to move away from his terminal, stand up and approach his fellow turian. Once the man was neck and neck with him, he spoke.

"You have something to report, Vakarian?" Entricas' voice was calm and didn't hold any intimidation; which told you how much of a coward this man was. He was retired from the turian military, having served his required ten year service. Garrus got out of that luckily because of his family's relationship with Primarch Fedorian and his family. The man had never reached the rank of Staff Sergeant, and now he understood why. Garrus cleared his throat before speaking.

"Why the hell did you let Jax out? The man was a convicted weapons dealer and you knew it! Why did you set the animal free from his cage!?" Garrus growled at the Captain, his glare evident as it shot at Entricas. The man seemed to flinch from his subordinate's change of tone, but any evidence that he was intimidated by him was quickly wiped away as the man assumed a obviously fake professional demeanour and stood up to him. Entricas' voice was smooth but not unwavering, more fidgety then he'd like.

"There was no proof to support your accusation. I saw no reason to keep him in. He was innocent, case closed." Entricas' voice dripped with lies, as if the man had been taught to spread bullshit out of his mouth at a early age. The man wasn't the perfect liar; liars knew to spout their bullshit while remaining discreet about it. This man was spouting bullshit while making it quite evident that he didn't believe the crap coming out of his own mouth. It was sickening, and only the spirits know why the man is still a captain and why the man hasn't retired to his death. Garrus growled even louder, this one more guttural, more predatory.

"That's a load of crap! Who the fuck do you think you're fooling Entricas? I saw the bloody krogan selling the weapons myself! He was doing it in the lower markets at the upper half of the Kikowani Ward, just below the Presidium! Just outside Chora's Den, where that other scumbag, Fist and his thugs live and continue to murder innocent people while you sit on your ass covering their heads as they continue to evade justice! If you had any balls you would have thrown both those assholes in a jail cell and left them to rot, not to mention you would have convinced the Citadel fleet to destroy Saleon's ship!" Garrus was so pissed off right now.

He had enough of this cowardly captain's excuses and constant scheming. Either Fist was paying him under the table to stay quiet, or he was being sent death threats but it didn't matter to Garrus, what mattered to him was upholding the law and the justice behind it. Anything else could go to hell and stay there.

"You are way out of your league, Sergeant! This is Citadel Security, not the friggin turian military! We don't just arrest people because you think they did something! You have to have proof! You want to play around and get yourself killed, fine by me. Just don't get me or your fellow officers involved! Your as bad as Sergeant Bailey! And he's a human! I'd expect better from a fellow turian such as yourself!" Entricas roared, but the amount of cowardice in his tone was so disgustingly evident it was quite pathetic.

"Because Bailey isn't a spineless coward and doesn't stand up for this bullshit! If you had any quad, this would have been resolved properly. Fuck regulations! They only serve as a obstacle for our job. We are meant to protect the people and civilians! But how are we doing that when we are letting men like Jax, Fist and Saleon free!? Fuck you, Entricas. I'm taking this to Palin himself. See what he wants with this."

"Palin? You seriously want to take such a unnessacary subject to the Executor himself? Be my guest, but your wasting your time Vakarian. You and Bailey will soon get your heads back into reality and learn what the world is really like." With that, Entricas sped back to his desk and seated himself back behind it, staring blankly at his terminal as he began writing up further status reports. Garrus' only words before leaving the room were, "I'm sure the real world is still full of quadless, politician kissing, assholes like you. I'll see what Palin has to say about this."

With that, any retort Entricas had planned fell unheard on the closing doors as Garrus stormed back into the corridor. His next destination? The Executor's office. Maybe he would at least listen. Any further train of thought was derailed as a familiar human voice came from his right.

"Entricas still hiding behind his desk? Or did he finally open his dumbass brain and allow himself to see the real world?" Garrus turned to see that it was Bailey, Armando Owen Bailey, a fellow C-Sec officer working under Entricas that had spoken, his Raikou model pistol sidearm at his hip, dangling needlessly. The man had cropped hair that was brownish in color, with a slight beard under his nose.

The man was at least in thirties, his voice one of a professional. His accent was that of what humans called 'british' nationality, while his standard C-Sec uniform of dark red gleamed in the light. The man had a firm jawline and like Garrus, wasn't a huge fan of regulations. Its why he and Bailey had worked so well together. Garrus shook his head.

"Still hiding behind his wallnut desk. I've given up on him, he's too deep in his own bullshit. I'm taking this to the Executor." By Bailey's expression, he looked like he was surprised. Humans seemed to rely heavily on facial gestures to communicate their emotions, as their face had so many features that could convey these emotions. Bailey's eyebrows were raised, which meant he was surprised, not to mention the certain gleam in his eyes.

"Executor Palin? Talk about hardcore for the cause. I'd come with you but Entricas has my head so far up in paperwork that I can't possibly finish it all by the end of the week and I really need to get it done. Also a few suspects to rein in. I'd wish you good luck, but I guess you turians don't believe in such things with your spirits and shit." Bailey had a huge grin on his face, obviously playing around and poking fun at the turian.

One of the great things about C-Sec; fraternization had no meaning here, you didn't get court-marshalled or reassigned to a new unit just because you got alittle social with someone. He'd heard that females and males weren't allowed in the same unit ever since Elysium, as one of the soldiers had gotten a little intimate with his squad member, ending in a romantic relationship that ended with the woman dead when the batarians attacked.

This human policy quickly spread and now all aliens use it except the asari; as their species is monogendered, meaning their is no male or female gender, they characterize both. Garrus was still confused by that as the asari seemed very much like their entire race was female, as all of them had large breasts and all of them had feminine looks and voices.

"Don't you humans worship multiple gods or something?" Garrus asked. He was genuinely curious; he had never gotten into the topic of human religious practises. Bailey laughed as he responded, "Yeah, we used to, that's until we evolved. We had multiple religions but now most of them are extinct and only two main ones are left; Christianity and Judaism. Christian myself, but those jews aren't all that bad."

"Jews?" Garrus asked. First religion, now these 'jews'?

"Oh, they're the people who follow Judaism. Trust me, they are very zealous when it comes to that shit. I'm Christian, but it doesn't mean I'm ultrareligious. I don't go to church to pray to the holy one every Sunday, I just do it occassionally. More of a Atheist actually. Oh and, uh, that's not really a religion, its basically where you don't believe in a god. Its...complicated, I know." Garrus nodded his head hesitantly as he watched the human, his body language spoke of someone who was desperately trying to teach to a _shatha _what a salarian liver tastes like. On second thought, he'd never tasted salarian liver himself.

"Well...I should get going. Lots to do. Good luck with the Executor." With that, Bailey simply shook the turians hand before walking in the opposite direction, towards the employees' offices. Garrus continued on his way towards the elevator, prepared to speak with the executor.

_Time for change._

* * *

**{LOADING THIRD FILE}**

**{WARNING: INTERROGATION SUBJECT 001 IS SHOWING SIGNS OF DETERIORATION. ACTIVATING BACKUP PROCEDURES}**

**{...}**

**{BACKUP PROCEDURES COMPLETE. INTERROGATION SUBJECT 001'S LIFESIGNS REMAIN STABLE. RETURNING TO PREVIOUS TASK}**

**{THIRD FILE LOADED. DECRYPTION COMPLETE. DATA DISCIMINATION IN PROGRESS. ATTEMPTING TO ACCESS FILES FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN AND ELEVEN}**

_**Sorry guys for the non-frequent notes, but I thought I'd let this story warm up before adding some notes. As you can see, I'm putting way more effort in my chapters, and I hope this will remain static. I attempted this with To Survive II, and succeeded with the first several installments, but eventually I lost my 'writing inspiration' and ended up rushing it, ending with a never ending, boring, repetitive story with dull story. **_

_**This will be different. I won't tell you more about Enigma that isn't already in the summary, but I hope you enjoy this story as it progresses. This is the first installment and it will deal with the events of the first Mass Effect game. Further installments will be revealed as such story progresses. This is my biggest project, and probably my last full-scale mass effect fanfic (others like 'Jacon and Friends', my upcoming short called 'Rael's pilgrimage' and other short stories not included) and I'll be moving on to writing fanfics on Halo and possibly, if I can get permission, on my cancelled machinima, Earth Schism. I hope you enjoy Enigma as I delve into this story. It will indeed be the tale of how Shepard and Tali eventually get together and fall into romance, how he assembles the crew and my own mixture of the game. You may notice entire sections being meddled with, such as Shepard and Tali's romance, Tali and Keenah's adventure in the comic 'Mass Effect: Homeworlds #2: Tali'Zorah' and many other things. Some characters who died might not, it all depends on how I develop this story. To Survive also lacked basic story outline, no storyboard, which is what lead to its ultimate downfall. **_

_**This is different however. All of this was achieved with a basic outline, which is, hopefully, what largely improved upon this story. Okay, I shall stop rambling now. I will get back to writing this story. Like I said, enjoy Enigma while you can. My school work might conflict with this. Hope it doesn't any further. See you on the next chapter!**_

_**No quoting this time. Not from the game. But I will leave hints at the bottom towards...well, you'll have to find out yourself. Consider it a puzzle of sorts. This isn't called 'Enigma' for no reason. ;)**_

**"You're not making this easy, number one. All you have to do is give us a name. Then you can walk free once again."**

**- Interrogator Carter Dielheart**

**"I'm a man of free rights. I have the right to remain silent, do I not?" (chuckles)**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**Interrogation 01 yielded no results. Attempting second dose of melaclorphine, double shots. **

**Alliance Command wants results soon. Won't say why, just say its urgent.**

**Copy that, try again in the morning. Maybe it'll work next time. The man's insane.**


	4. Chapter 2 War Without, And Within

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWO:**

**WAR WITHOUT, AND WITHIN**

_June 9, 2183_

_0915 hours._

_Cockpit, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for Eden Prime._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko._

"Commander" Pressly nodded at Marcus as he moved past the navigator, heading for the cockpit. Marcus' only response was a brisk nod before his attention returned to the flight deck ahead of him. All Pressly did was return to his console, his gaze fixed on a conversation with one of the crew; Adams by the voice. He could still hear the conversation as he headed up the flight deck, and it made it quite clear where Pressly stood.

"A turian spectre? Nihlus? What is he doing on a shakedown run? It simply doesn't add up. None of it does. Why are we here Adams?" Pressly's voice sounded curious but concerned all at the same time.

"Quit your worrying Pressly. I'm sure the alliance brass has their reasons. They've probably got some kind of surprise cooked up for us." Adams said in a less concerned voice; his voice was cool and calm. He was sure convinced of himself, that much was obvious.

"That's what worries me..." were the last words Marcus heard from the conversation as Marcus finished his march up the stairs, standing to the left of a familiar figure, his stoic pose in the entrance of the cockpit recognizable from a mile away; Nihlus. The turian seemed to be blankly staring out the cockpit window, the stars nothing but warped lines as the ship travelled Faster Than Light, aka FTL. Just as he stopped, he watched the ship approach a familiar, monolithic form. The Mass Relay he was looking at pulsed with blue energy. The core was the source of the light; a single sphere of a mass amount of eezo, aka Element Zero, was stored and was circled by two rotating rings that intersected every rotation. The rest of the sphere was surrounded by a unusual structure. The structure had miniture blue lights all over and had similiarities to a horizontal tuning fork, the middle part of the end removed. It was on unusual design, but its purpose wasn't. When close enough, a bolt of element zero energy would impact the ship and act like a slingshot, shooting the ship at Faster Than Sound, aka FTS, across the galaxy and to the connected relay in another cluster in a matter of seconds. Not only did this reduce hours or years of travel to a couple of seconds, but it allowed fast transportation inbetween clusters. Efficient, fast and it allowed supply routes to remain interconnected. Mass Relays were also indestructible; they could not be destroyed. Their was a myth that one had been destroyed, but it was so forth unconfirmed. The Protheans certainly built things to last.

He watched steadily as the Normandy steadily approached the relay and Joker's voice reined in the cabin, "five seconds to relay. Four, three, two, one. Shoot." Marcus watched as the bolt of energy enveloped the Normandy and everyone was blinded by pure blue light. Within seconds it was over, and they were looking at the connected relay, continuing their course for Eden Prime. They certainly hadn't been exaggerating about the speed of the travel between relays. Joker's status update came through the cabin and only now did Marcus notice Kaidan seated in his usual spot; to the right of Joker.

"Speed is 300kph and rapidly increasing as we enter FTL. ETA to Eden Prime is one hour, four minutes. Drift...just under 1500k." Joker didn't sound serious even when trying to be. The man always seemed to be in a comical mood, making comedy out of everything he did. Maybe it was a gift he grew up with or maybe it was something Anderson or his original superiors just had to put up with. Nihlus' voice broke his thoughts.

"1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." With that, Nihlus simply marched back down the flight deck to presumably meet with captain Anderson in his cabin, not that Marcus really cared. The more time he spent away from the turian, the better. He also got the nagging feeling that the turian was deliberately following him; as every time he turned around, Nihlus would be there. It was something that was not only frustrating him, but making him curious to no end. As soon as Nihlus was off the cockpit, Marcus took his chance and stood up next to Joker in his seat, almost right behind him, but just off to his left. He could hear Joker's voice as he stood next to him, low and loathing, but still with that lingering tone of comedy.

"I hate that guy. Remember to zip up your jumpsuit on your way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped through a relay and hit a target the size of a pinhead, so that's incredible! Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having them onboard. Call me paranoid." As Marcus listened to Joker, he couldn't help but notice even more how egotistical the man was, boasting about his achievements and how good his skills were. Shepard hated people with egos, they always had some kind of agenda to screw you over or they had some delusional dream that they'll make history in some part of the future. Those kind of men were selfish pricks, but Joker? Joker was a different kind of prick; the prick you grew to like after awhile and eventually befriend.

"You're paranoid. The Council helped fund this project, so they have the right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment. In this case, a turian spectre, Nihlus." Kaidan's reply was low and calm, not a frustrated retort which showed an amount of discipline; he didn't throw a tantrum like most recruits did when they didn't want to admit they were wrong. Kaidan was definitely a well-trained soldier, not a rookie. He earned his rank...just like him. Joker's response was almost immediate, but he certainly didn't raise his tone.

"Yeah, that's the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story." It was now that Marcus stopped listening to the conversation and actually thought it through. Joker had a point. The official story was always publisized to appeal to the greater audience, but that didn't mean it was nessacarily true. Most of the time it was all bullshit made to feed on a citizen's optimistic mind; to make them believe all was perfect in their perfect little world. Nothing was perfect though, and as long as people like the batarians existed, peace was nothing but a fantasy, optimism at its peak. For once since joining the Normandy crew, he finally agreed with something the pilot had brought up. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Joker's right. The turian spectre makes sense when you think of it from Kaidan's side of the argument, but why me? Why a man like Anderson? Why you two? Why Pressly, Adams, Chakwas and Jenkins? On a shakedown run? And why is Eden Prime coincidentally our destination when I just happened to have saved that colony myself years ago? None of this adds up. It oozes secrecy." He wasn't surprised when a grin creased along the pilot's features, the man obviously feeling smug due to his self-proclaimed victory. Marcus was going to say that he'd thought he'd made it clear that both he and Kaidan were correct, but he decided against it.

"I'm telling you, there is something else Anderson and Nihlus isn't telling us. Whatever's about to happen at Eden Prime, I doubt its anything like a simple shakedown run." Those were Joker's only words as Anderson's voice seemingly coming through the pilot's terminal. "Joker. Status Report." Anderson's voice was back into his usual professional tone, strict, strong and unwithering. Joker's voice was nowhere near as demanding as Anderson's as he responded, "Everything's running smooth captain. ETA to Eden Prime is fifty-seven minutes." Marcus simply listened in as Anderson's voice came back in, his voice the same tone but a tinge more rushed, "Good. Find us a comm buoy and link us into the network. I want mission updates being relayed to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime." Marcus raised a brow at that. _Mission updates? I knew this was more than a shakedown run. Noone lists a shakedown run as a mission. _"Roger that captain. Oh, and you'd...better brace yourself captain, I think Nihlus is headed your way."

"He's already here, Lieutenant," Marcus held back a chuckle as Joker rolled his eyes at Anderson's irritated response, before the man refocused on the terminal, "Inform the commander I want to meet him in the debriefing room immediately. Its about the mission. Anderson out." With that, Anderson's voice disappeared from the terminal as Joker gave his recognition, switching the terminal back to the flight statistics. Joker's words weren't nessacary, as Marcus as he'd already turned to leave, but it gained a chuckle from the N7 at least.

"Time to find out what 'ol Andy is hiding from us, make sure he and winnie the pooh aren't secretly plotting against the Council or something." Even Kaidan seemed to laugh a little as Marcus marched down the flight deck, walking past the galactic map and a saluting Pressly, before entering the debriefing room, the door sliding shut behind him. The Briefing Room was quite simple in design; a oval sized viewscreen allowed for video transmissions, while three pedestals lay in front of it for direct holographic communications. The room was illuminated by a white light, while the middle seemed to be a raised platform surrounded by simple railing. The room was circular in shape, with four, simple chairs on each side. The circumfrance of the room was lined with multiple panels. The room was entirely devoid of anyone except a single figure; Nihlus. Marcus was opening his mouth as the spectre turned around, his arms crossed as he approached him. The man was standing right next to the holopedestals as he turned.

"Ah. Commander Shepard, I was hoping to get a moment with you. Captain Anderson is on his way."

Marcus let his hands rest behind his back as he fixed a static stare at the turian as he walked into the middle of the room, the spectre insisting on remaining on the left side of the room. The N7 didn't know if turians could smile or not, but if they could, then Nihlus was right now. Marcus simply didn't know whether he should be annoyed by the turian's demeanour, or intrigued. Either way, the turian didn't wait for Marcus' response before speaking, "This planet we're heading to, Eden Prime, I've heard its quite beautiful." Marcus couldn't help but get the nagging feeling that Nihlus was stalling, but he couldn't deny the truth in the turian's words. Eden Prime was one of the most beautiful planets colonized by man; a space hawaii by comparison. The planet was enriched with amazing scenery, swaths of vibrant green jungle swamped all over the planet, with litte colonies on almost every continent of the planet. Three quarters of the planet was land, with a tiny quarter of it being ocean. To say it was a beautiful planet was nothing short of a understatement.

"They say its a paradise. But I don't see how any of this is relevant. Is there something you specifically want to know, or are we going to gossip about colonial beauty spots?" Marcus' irritation levels were reaching his peak. His father, Charles Shepard, was a less controlled men like him. He was prone to anger much more, but thanks to medication, the man had become a excellent infiltrator for the Alliance. Marcus was a different breed of soldier though. He was of the Vanguard classification; he loved his shotgun and assault rifle, but his ability to utilize a third weapon; his biotics, made him a lethal shock trooper on the battlefield, one any soldier would have feared. Marcus wasn't his father, his father loved the art of stealth, but him? No, Marcus Shepard craved heavy weapons and huge explosions; not to mention badass gravity-distorting abilities.

"Humanity has made great advances since your admission into the galaxy community. To think you've only been around for thirty years, and you've achieved so much. Eden Prime is a clear example that your people cannot only make thriving colonies, but defend them as equally. But how safe is it really? How long does it take before a stronger force attacks you? Didn't the batarians exploit this?" Marcus raised a brow at the turian as Nihlus uncrossed his arms and looked blankly at the screen, but not long after, he turned to Shepard again, as if waiting for an answer.

"Is humanity truly ready to join the Council? The galaxy is a very dangerous place." Nihlus stood in his usual stoic pose as Marcus looked at him with a frown.

"Join the Council? What do you mean...?"

"I think its time we told the commander what's really going on."

Marcus recognized the burly voice of Anderson as he turned to the man, the old veteran entering the room and stopping next to Nihlus, on his left. Marcus cocked his head in confusion at both Nihlus and Anderson, confused at what was going on. He had a strange feeling that he knew what was going on, but he didn't dae mention it. Instead, Marcus played the 'unaware' pretence.

"What is going on Captain?" Marcus asked, his voice dripping with curiosity, more than he intended, but he couldn't help it. If this had something to do with the shakedown run, then he wanted to know desperately. Everything about the mission was just one piece of bullshit after another. He would demand answers, but this was a Captain, he was his subordinate. He didn't get to make demands, but it didn't mean he couldn't ask legitimate questions. Anderson's jawline tensed up before he answered, a sigh escaping his lips. But it was Nihlus who answered first.

"This is far more than a simple shakedown run." The turian said almost casually, like he'd been talking about what his favourite food was to a family member. Anderson nodded as the words finally came out.

"Nihlus is correct. You...were correct. We knew it was obvious, but we couldn't tell anyone except you. This is a classified mission. If word of this got out to the Terminus System, war could erupt over the beacon." Marcus immediately snapped his look towards Anderson upon the word 'beacon'.

"Beacon? What is this is 'beacon'? Is this what the whole mission is about?" Marcus asked. What the hell kind of a 'beacon' could start an all out war between Council Space and the Terminus Systems? It must have been pretty important. A weapon of some sort? Maybe...a bomb? Or an ancient transmitter...or...oh shit, no, it couldn't be...

"Two weeks ago, some miners at Eden Prime unearthed some kind of beacon. It was Prothean." Anderson's face matched the shock of Marcus'. The Protheans were a advanced race of aliens that had lived fifty thousand years ago. They had built the mass relays and the Citadel the galaxy now called their capital, while their race had a vast intergalactic empire that spanned the entire galaxy. They were said to have been noble explorers, making peace wherever they went. Then they vanished. Fifty thousand years ago they disappeared off the galactic map, without a trace. The only evidence of their existence left was the mass relays, Citadel and tiny snippets of prothean ruins scattered throughout the milky way. Otherwise, noone would have known they existed. The Prothean people had simply vanished from the galaxy, going off to some unknown galaxy or sanctuary, leaving no evidence that they ever existed except their creations. The entire galaxy, including the first species to enter the cosmos; the asari, had their technology based off the Protheans. The protheans were the only species to have developed such technology; not even the asari, the most advanced species in the galaxy, had rivalled the Protheans in technological achievement. And still, even now, noone knows exactly what happened to them. There are lots of theories, but most of them were dismissed as simple myth.

"Prothean? Is that what this is all about? Is the Alliance afraid that the batarians will get wind of this? Or Terminus mercenaries? Do you really think a simple beacon would be enough to envoke full-scale war?" Marcus bombarded them with questions, wanting desperately to find out all the answers about this classified mission. It was obvious now why Shepard was in charge of a squad and they XO of the Alliance's most advanced warship; they wanted to be able to combat and repel any mercenary attack. But why was the beacon so important that they sent a stealth frigate with a heavily-armed and equipped three-man squad? Did this beacon hold secrets of some kind? Or was this beacon not real? And it was all just a conveninent lie to cover up the real mission. What if they were covering up bullshit with more bullshit? No. Anderson wasn't that kind of man, and if Nihlus really was sent by the Council...no, this was real. That beacon was the source of all this, and he wanted to know why.

Anderson nodded, "Yes, Marcus. Its not the beacon itself we're afraid will spark a war, no, this could be the most historically significant archaelogical discovery in the history of the galaxy; we've never found intact Prothean technology like this; certainly nothing like the Mars Archives. And the Alliance can't just keep this to themselves, no, the consequences for withholding working prothean technology of any sort are very harsh. Some of the harshest in Council Space. That's not what will start a war, its location is. You know where Eden Prime is located, do you not? You realize its not in Council Space, right?"

"Its in the Attican Traverse. Which borders with..." Marcus began, but he didn't need to finish. Nihlus did it for him instead.

"...the Terminus Systems. Those lawless scum have made it quite clear where they stand. Anyone from Council space found entering their space will be declared warmongers and they will immediately declare war. We need to retrieve that beacon, but if we don't do it quietly, the Terminus will get wind of us and the next thing you know we'll have Palaven being swarmed by mercenary outlaws and their fleets. Batarians are also on good terms with the Terminus, they wouldn't hesitate in joining this conflict. Many krogan also flourish in the Terminus. Full-scale war is not something the Council needs, Commander. That is why we need the Normandy. Its stealth drives allow us to slip in undetected to quickly extract the beacon so it can be transported to the Council themselves at the Citadel."

"I understand. My team will be ready, sir." Marcus stated, snapping his hand up in a salute. Anderson nodded before speaking again.

"There is one more thing you should know. Nihlus isn't just here for the beacon. I believe he mentioned 'humanity joining the Council', did he not?" Marcus looked at Nihlus and then back to Anderson, his hand resting back at his side, nodding as he went. "I believe that question remains unanswered, captain." Marcus' voice held no malice, but he wasn't exactly happy. He wanted to know what Nihlus meant by that. Had it been a threat? Maybe the turians were looking to have a reenactment of the First Contact War? No...the turians may still dislike humanity, but they certainly weren't looking for another war, no matter how militaristic they were. Nihlus' face simply creased into a turian smile, his mandibles twitching as Anderson continued speaking.

"To become a member of the Council, you can't just smile at them and shake their hands. No, you have to prove your worthy of helping govern the galactic community. That is another reason the Spectres exist. Now it doesn't always work like that, but Spectres are usually the catalyst. Whenever a species wants to become a Council member, they usually elect a member of their people who them deem worthy to become a Spectre. That spectre must prove him or herself by doing a great deed for the Council or doing something for the good of the galaxy. Once they have done that, they have proven that their species is worthy and become a Council member, furthering the interests of their people as a whole."

"So...one of us is becoming a Spectre?" Marcus asked, seemingly curious as to who was being nominated. He was surprised when Nihlus answered.

"Not someone, Commander. You." Marcus snapped his look back to the turian, the look of shock on his face almost comical. Did he just hear that right?

"Me? I'm...a Spectre?" To say Marcus was flabbergasted was a understatement. He was a Spectre; not only was he free of any authority in the Alliance, meaning he could disobey a superior's direct order and get away with it since he was now technically a paramilitary black ops agent, but he was also free of the law, being above it and all. That didn't mean he'd abuse his authority, but he'd certainly use it to save the galaxy. He was a soldier, not just for humanity now but for the whole galaxy. He was the Council's sword, and he'd do his best to sharpen its blade.

"Not yet, no. You've been nominated for candidacy in the Spectres. You must earn your place as a Spectre. That is why Nihlus is here. The Council has sent him to evaluate you. If he's impressed, then you'll complete the test and present yourself before the Council as they grant you candidacy." Anderson explained. This didn't down Shepard's hopes; no, that was motivation. He was Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, he wasn't a quitter, he was a pusher. He pushed until his goal was met, no forfeiting. Quitters were the batarians, and those scum ended up self-sympathetic and ran away to hide in Kite's Nest. No, he would be a Spectre by the end of this month. He was sure of it. Nihlus nodded.

"Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together. You will command your squad, but I shall watch you. I urge you not to make a fool of yourself by foolish sense of bravado, Commander. I hope I'm clear on that." Marcus sighed at the turian's ignorance. What gave him the impression that he was a reckless fool? Was it Jenkins? The man was young, but he wasn't foolish. And this turian just seemed to be plain ignorant. That would hopefully change the longer he served alongside the Spectre. Maybe his life really had taken a turn for the best. Marcus simply saluted.

"Is this all? If so, I'd like to inform the crew and especially; my squad."

"Of course. We should be reaching Eden Prime soon-" Anderson's voice was almost immediately cut off by Joker, his voice hurried and...worried? Joker sounded worried for once? That meant one thing; something urgent was happening, and it wasn't good.

"Captain! We have a priority one transmission coming in from Eden Prime! Its a distress call! Eden Prime is under attack!" Even Nihlus, for all his stoic demeanour was now positively shocked; this had not been the way he had planned the original mission. But for Marcus? No, this was his chance to prove himself. To become the soldier they needed him to be. They didn't think him worthy? He'd prove them wrong. Anderson's voice was urgent as he approached the viewscreen, "On screen, Joker!" Marcus knew what was running through his mind. What if the mercenaries or batarians had already tapped into Alliance transmissions? No, to well encrypted for them, that must mean it was a random attack on what just happened to be a priority target. Too coincidental, but the only option. As prompted, the viewscreen lit up with a image of Eden Prime, but not at all in its prime. The speakers were flooded with the staccato beat of gunfire. The screen was covered with the moving forms of alliance marines assuming defensive positions as gunfire roared across the screen. The shots he saw were unusual; they wore a purple visage while sounding much more plasmatic. Not of any type of weapon he had heard of. He watched as marines screamed out warnings and orders, while others fell dead on the ground. A single soldier's face appeared on screen, her features showing that of someone who was terrified out of her mind.

"This is Private First Class Nirali Bhatia, Second Frontier Division, Concord Squad under the command of Staff Sergeant Stephen Banner, now KIA. Eden Prime is under attack by unknown synthetic forces! We are heavily outnumbered...," an explosion erupted nearby causing debris to fall everywhere. The woman seemed to recover, her accent hinting towards someone of indian heritage, not to mention the name, "They came out of nowhere! They have somekind of mothership! I've never seen anything like it, its...HUGE! I think they're..." This time, it was a gunshot that interrupted the recording and this time, the woman didn't recover. The gunshot ruptured her head, blood splattering all over the lens as the body fell limp to the ground. Another feminine voice was heard in the background, the visage of a woman in white, female Phoenix armor running past, shouting, "Nirali! Damn it! Everybody-"

The rest was cut off by static.

"That's it. No more transmissions leave the planet. I've tried linking us to a comm buoy, but nothing happens. Just static. There's nothing." Joker's voice sounded regretful, like he'd been responsible for the deaths of so many noble and brave alliance marines. It was obvious it wasn't his fault, but his tone suggested melancholy at what he'd done. It was one of those rare moments that Joker actually dumped his comedic act and acted like he was actually part of the Alliance Navy.

"Reverse and hold at 38.5." Anderson ordered, his voice sounding serious and concerned. He'd spotted something in the distress call and Marcus was curious as to what. Nihlus seemed to be curious as well, as the turian spectre had leaned in closer for a better look, not that he needed to though. Marcus watched as it rewind back to the spot just before the first explosion. Anderson's voice was clear through the entire room. "What in god's name is that...?" For the first time since he'd met the N7 veteran, Marcus had heard fear in the man's voice, his face was creased in a look of pure worry and even Nihlus seemed like he was shitting himself. Marcus looked closer at the recording and finally saw it, looming in the background. It was a ship of somekind, massive in scope, easily dwarfing three dreadnoughts, close to the ground, but this was a vessel unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Most of the ship was hidden by the lush jungle of the planet, but the front of it was covered in blood red armor plating that was shaped like bug armor, while the forward section had what looked like three large legs poking out of it, both equally as monolithic. Marcus was shocked at the fact that the ship was actually standing, a ship was standing! Whatever ship this was, it sure as hell wasn't of any known species.

The recording continued from the still image and the ship seemed to let out a deafening synthetic roar, reminiscent of a high-pitched, dark horn, one that sent chills down your spine and was one that held the pretence of your darkest nightmares. And then, just like that, one side of the ship lit up ruby red, and a pulsing, crimson beam shot out from under one of the legs and hit the ground, a colossal explosion following it, sending an entire platoon of marines in the background flying. That had to be the mothership Nirali was talking about, and if it was, the firepower it packed would require more than the frigate they had to engage and destroy it. They didn't even know what shields or armor it packed, or what other weapon systems it had.

"Nihlus...get to the armoury and get equipped. Meet us in the Cargo Port." Anderson ordered the Spectre. The spectre immediately nodded and ran out of the debriefing room in a hurried fashion, the door sliding shut behind the turian's retreating form. Anderson immediately turned to Marcus, his face radiating authority. "Time to get suited up, Commander. You're going in. Assemble Jenkins and Kaidan down in the armoury and get comfortable in your armor and weapons. I think we have more to worry about then a simple batarian attack. This might be a declaration of war, but whatever species it is, it ain't any we know of. This could be a first contact situation, so keep it clean. I'll meet you in the Cargo hold." With that, Anderson snapped a quick salute that Marcus soon reciprocated before he spun on his heels and left, leaving Marcus alone to gaze at the still image of the nightmarish mothership of untold power. Nothing in his life prepared him for this. How big was that ship? He hadn't even caught the full scope of it!

Leaving the room, Marcus exited the debriefing room only to hear Dr. Chakwas arguing with someone. Turning he left, a marine bumped into him, reeling back as Dr. Chakwas chastised him for his carelessness. Turning, Marcus saw it was Jenkins. The man's face lit up like a christmas tree, his feature radiating joy at seeing his commander or in the corporal's place, his inspiring idol of worship.

"Commander! I heard you, Anderson and Nihlus were having a meeting. Does it have to do with what's going on?" As usual, Jenkins spoke in a rapidfire language that came with young age; the youthful were always careless towards their superiors, never understanding until they are the superior that you can't understand what the hell they are saying. Deciding not to hurt the corporal's feelings, he decided to answer his question.

"Yes. This was far more than a simple shakedown run..." he didn't get to finish as Kaidan shouted, "Fuck!" down the flight deck, causing everyone to look at him. Joker's chuckle followed, "I knew it! But no, Kaidan's all 'alliance privacy and regulations.' Suck it blue!" Marcus simply chuckled at them before turning back to Jenkins to finish what he was saying, surprised that the corporal's posture hadn't changed at all, "Some archaelogists at Eden Prime unearthed a working, functioning Prothean beacon but the Alliance can't retrieve it for the Council due to Eden Prime's location in the Attican Traverse and its proximity to the Terminus. So, they sent us to help retrieve it, with me, Jenkins and Kaidan being the guards against any mercenary attack. But plans have changed." Chakwas, who had been trying to stop Jenkins before, was now listening in, and now looked positively curious as to what happened. So did Jenkins, to noone's surprise. Clearing his throat, he continued.

"Eden Prime just sent out a general distress call. Alliance forces in charge of defending the colony are under attack from hostile synthetic forces of unknown origin or designation. They appear to have a flagship of somekind with immense power and design we've never seen before. It certainly doesn't belong to any known species. The thing could stand up, it had legs. And the bloody thing was so gigantic it dwarfed three dreadnoughts. It also has advanced weaponry that I watched decimate an entire platoon of soldiers in a single shot. Whatever weaponry it packs, its definitely not Mass accellerator weapons. Anderson wants Nihlus and us to deploy onto the ground, secure the beacon and assist in saving the colony. Those are the mission parameters. Jenkins, go fetch Kaidan and meet me at the others in the Cargo Hold. Get suited up, because we're going in."

Now Jenkins looked like a hopping bunny, he was close to jumping up and down, his face creased in such a broad smile, his beret seemingly still stationary, "Finally! A chance to prove to everyone what I can do! I won't disappoint you, Commander!" Marcus shook his head at the man's bravado. He was young and would learn, but if this man thought war was fun he was gravely mistaken. And he certainly wouldn't have him using the mission as a field test. That was plain unacceptable.

"This isn't 'run around the oval and shoot some dummies' Corporal. This is live rounds, blood-pumping, full-adrenaline warfare. These things...they won't hesitate in killing you. I watched them slaughter an entire division of soldiers, one by one. This isn't a game, so slap yourself out of your bravado and suit up, because this isn't the time for games, this isn't 'impress the commander and get a medal' time, this is 'shoot first, ask questions later' time. Am I clear Corporal, or will I be finding myself a new marksman?" This is what Marcus did best, leading troops. He knew how to strike fear into them, and when to boost morale. Its how he had advanced up the ranks so fast, he was a natural leader, not some guy who thought raising his voice qualified to make him a veteran commando. He was born for the job...just like his father.

Jenkins' demeanour seemed to die down a little, and he immediately tensed up, snapping a salute at his commander, "Yes sir! I won't disappoint! They won't even see the rifle firing, sir!" Marcus almost laughed out loud. Jenkins may have been a youthful abundance of joy on the outside, but locked up inside was a soldier, one that just needed to be released. The man was now a statue almost, his hand firm and his muscles flexed to the point of veins beginning to pop out from under the skin. A pure soldier, Jenkins was a perfect image of when Marcus himself had been a simple corporal. He had once been in Jenkins' position, with his commander barking down at him. With his orders rolling around in the man's brain, the now soldier-Jenkins marched up towards the flight deck. Marcus nodded at Dr. Chakwas, the doctor shaking her head in amusement and muttering something like, 'soldiers' and then walking over to Pressly and starting up a conversation. Marcus then approached the door to his left and accessed the console, heading down the stairs towards the elevator. The image of that warship still rolled around his mind, coupled with Joker's words from before.

_"Whatever's about to happen at Eden Prime, I doubt its anything like a simple shakedown run." _

**{Loadingggggzzzgggg...} {Malfunction, reintializing}**

"I've never shown my face to anyone..."

**{Unknown file access. Attempting to recover File Three...Recovered}**

**{Loading...}**

_June 15, 2183 (Translated Khelish Time)_

_Tenth Hour, Five Minutes._

_Business Port, Nos Astra Dock, Nos Astra, Illium. _

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Marine Escort Keenah'Butras vas Rayya._

Illium. The fleet had never really visited many of the colonies owned by the other species; Humans, Turians, Salarians, Asari, Hanar, Elcor and Volus. The fleet only visited uninhabited worlds for resources, and that was it. But Illium? The fleet always visited Illium for refueling, as they were the only alien colony, or asari colony in this case, that actually welcomed them. All the others waved them off with the same threat, 'leave or we will shoot you out of orbit.' Illium was simply a testament to the wonders of asari architecture. The vast city scape of Nos Astra was beautiful, serene and if not for the insane amount of traffic; tranquil. The design of asari buildings was sleek and advanced, most of their buildings taking on golden outlines, while using silvery circumfrances. Tiny dots moved to and from buildings, the numerous cars, trucks and transports gliding through the grand metropolis. The place was beauty in itself; a wonderous place to behold. It didn't hold a candle to Thessia, the asari homeworld, but it was still an astonishing sight. But all of it was just a deceptive mask; Illium was located in the Terminus System and all though it still had laws, there was alot of traps. If you weren't careful, you could find yourself the victim of being tied to a contract; indentured servitude was a big thing on Illium and almost all of the big contractors had indentured servants, to humans, slaves.

Tali and Keenah hopefully wouldn't have to contend with that, they were here to provide important evidence to the Illium authorities. This information was so important. Without it, the entire galaxy would be unaware of the genocidal machine race that was intent on wiping them out. If these people don't find out soon and prepare, then there might not be authorities to warn. The Nos Astra Dock wasn't anything fancy; the room was lit up by a hybrid of purple and blue light, the architecture of the room was the typical asari cultured design. Tali was standing at the back of the room awaiting the security forces arrival. They had contacted Illium security upon their landing and organized a meeting in the docks. Her shotgun was stuck to the magnetic clamp on her waist and her pistol to the magnet on her hip. Keenah stood behind her, assault rifle also strapped to his back. The docking officials had been initially hesitant about letting two quarians or as they dubbed them 'suit-rats' onto Illium, but they eventually gave in once they heard about the information they carried, although it was reluctant.

If they ever needed to escape quickly, their shuttle was located only meters away. The young girl was getting quite impatient; security had promised to come twenty-one minutes ago, and there was no way it took as long as they were taking to get here. Tali checked her chrono again. _Tenth Hour, Six Minutes. _If anyone had been able to see her face, they'd see that the woman was very frustrated. How anyone would be able to stand being kept up like this, it was outrageous. She shared a glance with Keenah, who's expression was simple; crossed arms while leaning against the wall. Of course Keenah could stand this stuff, he was a marine. He had experience with standing in formation for hours on end, the man could stand there for as many hours as he wanted and not even budge. Tali simply returned to staring up ahead, her look pensive. She wondered what her father was doing right now, what the afterlife with the ancestors was like and how Shala was doing. It was all she could do to keep herself from getting incredibly bored.

Then, finally, as if her prayers had been answered, the bright white uniforms of numerous Illium security personnel. Most of them were asari, that was expected, but two of them were salarians and another one a turian. Asari were the images of natural beauty, their entire species were the images of females, but they were actually monogendered. Their entire skin tone was a light blue, while the rest of their body was similiar to a human; they had five fingers and toes, breasts and the same human anatomy, save the sexual organs. Their heads were also human, except they lacked hair, which was replaced with tentacles that linked behind their heads, and wasn't the wriggly kind, thee tenacles were solid. All asari were also natural biotics; while others became biotics through exposure to element zero, asari were biotics upon birth. Their entire race were biotics; going to war with them would be costy, even the turians or krogan wouldn't risk it. The asari were also said to have mind-melding abilities; being able to link minds together. This also served as the asari's way of reproduction; they had sex in the human tense, but instead of...well...fertilization, they 'uploaded' the baby's genetic code into the mind of their mate or took the genetic code if the mate was male, and that was how they became pregnant. It was a odd way of reproduction, but it worked...for them at least. Everything about the asari was feminine; if not for their monogendered status, Tali would have thought them all female.

The asari in the front motioned for Keenah and herself to approach, a look of disgust on her face. One of the salarians looked unperturbed, but the others were just disgusted, absolutely repulsed by the idea of quarians on their beautiful planet. Both salarians and the turian looked like they were armed with avenger assault rifles, aside from the turian, who was curiously armed with a reaper model sniper rifle, which was unusual due to the close range of their encounter; she had expected a shotgun at this range. As Tali and Keenah stopped in front of the asari, she spoke.

"You the quarians that just docked?" The asari asked rather rudely. Tali tried to answer diplomatically; combating rudeness with more rudeness would get her nowhere.

"Yes, but those quarians have a-"

"Shut up suit rat! Don't talk back to your superiors, you inferior piece of excrement!" The asari spat at her, with as much venom and malice as she could manage. Bits of saliva collected on Tali's mask, but she wiped it away and directed a strong glare at the asari. But it was Keenah who retaliated.

"Back the hell off you _bosh'tet uhrarniz!_" He shouted. The asari didn't budge, but the others immediately raised their rifles at the hostile quarian, who immediately raised his. Tali didn't know what to do but continue to glare at the asari racist. She also wanted to cry. Everything told to her about the galaxy was a lie; a false tale. The many species of the galaxy weren't fond of quarians, they despised them. Keenah had told her after escaping Gei Hinnom everything, but she didn't fully believe it until it happened. Everyone in the galaxy hated quarians for being...quarians. The highest form of racism in the galaxy. She had heard stories that the fleet had tried to colonize many planets as a new homeworld, but the Council had either bombarded it, or threatened to, or they claimed it was more suited for turians, as only the turians and the quarians were dextro-amino in acid chirality; all other species were levo-amino, including humans. The fleet was nicknamed as 'locust', as every system they passed ended up being cleansened of resources, consumed by her nomadic people, condemned to the stars by their own creations. Trapped in suits for the rest of their miserable existence. Doomed to the racism they brought upon themselves. But why would they deserve such racism when they were just trying to survive? Wouldn't the turians do the same? And the asari, salarians, elcor, hanar, humans. But they needed this information, she couldn't let petty grudges stop her from saving the galaxy at large. Just when they thought the security officers would open fire, the asari's raidio crackled to life. The asari reached up to her ear, keying the comm as the unaudioable voice came through, the asari nodding at the unhearable commands. When it looked like she was done, she let her hand fall and returned to her levelled rifle, moving it to aim at Tali's visor.

"Just received new orders. A man named Jacobus just reported in saying you were just like the rest of your people; vagabonds, beggars and thieves. Your so called evidence is just fake, your looking for credits you pathetic sack! You liars!" Tali looked at the asari in shock. Whoever this Jacobus was, turian by the name, was lying. _Keelah, if he's working for this Saren, then that must mean Saren knows we're on to him and sent one of his agents to kill me and Keenah. Or slow us down. Keelah, we have to do something! _

"Please, we're not lying, I swear! We have evidence that a turian named Saren Arterius has a army of geth and is planning to invade Council space! You have to listen to-" The asari simply chuckled, causing Tali to stop in confusion. Keenah still had his rifle raised, alternating between the officers, waiting to fire and take down the racist bosh'tets. The officers simply looked at the quarians, shaking their heads while grins creased their facial features.

"Saren Arterius? Army of Geth? Invasion of Council Space? Ha! You're hilarious! Saren Arterius is the most successful, ruthless, but successful and most loyal spectre to the Council. The turian would never betray them! And Army of geth? Noone, not even Saren, can convince the geth to join them! Those damn machines think only for themselves and have killed every organic trying to enter the Veil! And why the hell would we care about those political bludgeoning morons! They are so far up in their 'lawful and civilized' crap that they hardly realize what idiots they look like! While Illium is a Terminus colony, we will continue to not give two fucks about those idiots! Let them burn! And then we will rise back up and claim the land taken!" The asari finished with a triumphant voice, as if she was somekind of krogan warlord preaching oncoming victory.

"Are you kidding? Mercenaries won't stand a chance against the full might of the geth armada! And they won't stop with Council space. They're planning to bring back their gods, the ones called the Reapers! Please, if you don't listen-" Tali pleaded.

"No, quarian, we've done our fair share of listening, now we shall talk, and you will listen! Take your soldier friend and get the hell of Illium before we give you so many suit ruptures, you'll be sprawling on the ground coughing up blood and dying of infection!" The asari's voice rose to a cacophony, the other guards tightening the grip on their weapons. They all fixed stares of hate at them, not caring that they just rejected information vital to their survival. Tali looked at them pleadingly, but knew it was a lost battle, these people weren't going to listen. But who else would listen but the..._The Council themselves, of course! We should have gone to the Citadel in the first place! _Tali was about to give up and leave, but Keenah's voice destroyed those plans.

"Bunch of racist assholes, you lot. Kal'Reegar warned me you were a bunch of retarded, self-righteous pricks. You call us useless suit-rats now, but it'd be a different story if your orbital defense fleet was blown up and we had your entire planet surrounded, because trust me! We have fifty thousand ships, I'm sure we could do it! Then you'd be the ones begging for mercy, you scumbags. Kal'Reegar is more of a man than any of you, he's more of an organic than all of you. Nah, you know what? You're more like geth than anything else." Tali swore that if Keenah hadn't been wearing a mask, she'd see him grinning. Why? Cause he had successfully pissed off Illium's security personnel. The asari looked shocked, but her rife stayed levelled, now aimed at Keenah. "You making threats quarian? You really willing to declare war against the asari republics? Cause if you attack Illium, that's what you'll be doing! A declaration of war!" The asari seemed sure of herself. Keenah simply continued, "You really don't think the Salarian Union, Turian Hierarchy, Asari Republics and Human Systems Alliance will give a _reist _about a Terminus colony? If you don't care about Council colonies, then why do you think they'd show any love to a Terminus colony? Hate goes both ways, asari. Come on Tali, we'll leave and find someone who isn't a degenerated primate. I'm actually surprised the asari are the most advanced species; I think the technology is all that's advanced. Intelligence is that of a _Wumbri._"

Without thought, Keenah dropped his weapon in his right hand and grabbed Tali's arm, pulling her towards the entrance. Tali just went along with it, watching as the asari and her comradaries lowered their weapons and moved back towards the exit. It wasn't long before they were back out on the majestic cityscape of Nos Astra. Keenah turned towards her as he holstered his weapon on his back and continued walking back to the shuttle, "Great. Now what, Miss Zorah? This is your pilgrimage. Where do we take this information, the Admiralty Board? They'll want to see it. They need to see it." Tali shook her head as she joined Keenah's side, turning to him.

"The information wouldn't be a proper pilgrimage gift, I need to prove my worth to the fleet. I can't do that by being a messenger. Besides, the admiralty can't use the information to the best of their ability. We need to get this in the hands of the Council themselves; they can get all the major races involved; Asari Republics, Turian Hierarchy, Salarian Union, Volus Protectorate, Hanar Primacy, Elcor Flotilla, Human Alliance, all of them. With them, then we contact the Migrant Fleet and they can have a formidable force ready to repel any geth assault and these Reapers won't stand a chance. I hope." Tali really had no idea what power these Reapers held. If they could extinquish the entire Prothean empire and wipe their species out completely leaving no trace, then what chance did they have? And surely there would have been multiple species during that period to fight with them to. And they were wiped out as well. All of a sudden their chances didn't seem as great. But unity was better than division. Divide and conquer was an enemy's greatest weapon, and they didn't see the Reapers coming, they would.

"Then we have to get to the Citadel, immediately. We'll refuel the shuttle at the Nos Astra Refueling station and then head straight to the Citadel. Let's hope they find this information worth the time, and let's hope their friendlier than the welcoming par-" Any other orders that Keenah was giving were cut off by a loud explosion and screaming. Out of instinct, Keenah leapt onto Tali and held her to the ground, using his body as a shield as he scoped out the area. Tali did the same, her eyes finding the source of the explosion; the docking bay. And it wasn't just any, randomly placed bomb, it was placed on their only form of transportation. The words escaped her lips before she could stop them, "The shuttle! OUR shuttle!" Keenah nodded solemnly as multiple civilians of many different species ran past in fear, running for the wherever there was to hide as the security guards from before ran in and took haphazard positions. Keenah shook his head as he stood up and offered a hand to Tali, the young girl taking it and standing up. Keenah immediately turned back to the officers, his military wisdom taking action.

"Your too spread out, you lack cohesion! Group together and your able to better coordinate your defense. It also turns you into a shield to protect the civilians from hostile fire. Are you sure you went through basic training before becoming security officers?" Keenah chastised. The officers looked at him bewildered, but the asari from before didn't waste any time in opening fire, verbally. "Aren't you meant to be gone, suit-rat?" Keenah shook his head, "I'm giving you advice, bosh'tet. Shove your racism aside to keep these civilians safe!" Tali shook her head as she ran ahead and into the docks, stopping beside the flaming wreck of the destroyed shuttle. Their only ticket to the Citadel; gone, destroyed. And why would these racists lone them a shuttle? Tali swore she heard a click of a weapon next to her and upon instinct, drew her katana shotgun and pointed it at the assumed source, immediately pulling the trigger. To her surprise she heard the shattering of shields and the dreadful sound of flesh being smashed. Turning she saw a now deceased salarian fall to the ground, his amphibian head blasted into a bloodied pulp by the slug of her shotgun. They call Katana's weak, but this thing packed a punch.

The striker pistol held by the salarian fell to the ground next to his body, purple blood pouring from his wound. He wore no uniform, hinting towards a hired mercenary. Blue Suns? Eclipse? Blood Pack? No, they were disciplined and actually had the nessacary uniform, no, this merc had no uniform to speak of; just a white tunic. Must have been a freelancer mercenary, and freelancers are after her. _Jacobus. Has to be. _Tali immediately noticed a turian and human approaching her, the turian wielding a Terminator model assault rifle and the human a Banshee model. At the sight of the quarian woman brandishing a shotgun, the human primed a grenade but a shot rang out and impacted the grenade, causing it to explode in a crimson explosion, the human being ripped to pieces as the shrapnel hit the turian, causing him to tumble to the ground before assault rifle shots tore into his chest, killing him. Tali turned to see her rescuer, and saw Keenah approaching her, rifle still raised, the telltale beeping sound of a overheated assault rifle entering cooldown. The weapons had unlimited ammo, but if they were kept on automatic for sustained periods with no breaks in fire, they would eventually overheat, forcing the wielder to wait for it to cooldown, which was usually ten seconds, depending on the weapon; pistol, assault rifle, shotgun or sniper rifle. Heavy weapons were taken out of standard militaries due to the evolution of vehicular warfare, the need being outweighed by the evolution.

"Come on, ma'am. We'll have to find another way out of here." Keenah stated, motioning for her to follow him out of the docks. Tali cursed under her breath as she looked at the docks for a final time. Her entire pilgrimage had been a disaster; geth patrols, moronic racist security officers and now Saren was out for their heads and had blown up their only trip off Illium. She was trapped, walled off from her people with a well-trained quarian migrant fleet marine, who certainly wasn't anything like the company of friends like Kal'Reegar, who the best marine she knew, but was kind and friendly inside, unlike Keenah, who was pure marine all over. He protected her like a brother, but that didn't make him friendly, that just made him quarian. Ever since their exile, every quarian was family with each other. Keenah was considered a 'fleet-brother.' Kal felt more like a brother than anyone else. It wasn't love she felt for Kal, no, it wasn't anything like that, especially not for Kal, who stated he 'had no time for women or romance; I'm a soldier, through and through. Courting a woman isn't my thing; doesn't mean I don't want you as not just my fleet-sister, but my actual sister. Ma'am.' Tali almost giggled at that. Kal was so formal, he always insisted on calling her ma'am, and if her pilgrimage was completed, he'd have a reason to, because father would surely have her promoted to his head assistant or something. Providing she completed her pilgrimage and lived to tell about it.

Then she saw it, large as anything else around them. A single cargo ship, possibly a freighter, sat docked with the docks, looking as if it was prepared to leave. There was no way they would let them onboard, but if they stowed away..._No, that's breaking the law you fool! You'd only be giving the racists proof! Then again, there won't be a law if they don't get this information soon. This is galactic stability and safety we're talking about here! Keelah Tali, make up your mind! Think. What would Meru do? What would Meru ask you to do? _Tali looked between Keenah and the cargo ship. Upon her third alternation, she had made her decision. _She'd pick stowing away. _With that, she shouted at Keenah to follow her as she headed towards an exterior airlock.

"This is crazy ma'am, we could get caught..." Keenah began to object, but Tali shushed him with a raised index finger, using her 'amazing' hacking skills, one of her greatest talents, to open the airlock for them to sneak inside. Once they entered the dimly lit room covered in shipping crates, she turned to the door and closed it before speaking to Keenah, "Its our only option. I saw the intended destination. Its headed for the Citadel, supply run no doubt. Our way out. Hopefully this information will grant us the favor of the Council in getting a new ship to take back to the fleet. My pilgrimage is over, I've had enough of this galaxy. They don't like it they can go to hell." Keenah shook his head as he snuck behind a crate, Tali joining him.

"Crazy, Miss Zorah, but I'm loving the action. I haven't had this much action since my mission under Kal'Reegar to the planet Utukku. I'll explain later, its not important right now." Tali rolled her eyes as she felt the ship's docking clamps release.

_This is my destiny. My pilgrimage ends here. _

**{Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1402 hours._

_Executor Palin's Office, Citadel Embassies, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian, Executor Filicus Palin. _

"The answer is no, Vakarian. I'm not going to change C-Sec policy just to accomadate your needs." Palin stated, his position unchanging. Garrus had since travelled to the Citadel Embassies on the Presidium ring of the Citadel, going to speak with Executor Filicus Palin, essentially the head president of Citadel Security. He ran the entire organization himself. The Presidium was where the main beauty of the Citadel rested; the artificial sun blared down on the landscape. Trees and grass spread all over, with tiny city structures lying all over the place with stores and houses pitted along its perimeters, with numerous bridges and platforms positioned above, cars and trucks speeding above these platforms. The Citadel was nicknamed the 'planet-scale city station', and they definitely weren't wrong. The Citadel was essentially the capital space city of the galaxy and was so heavily defended, noone dared attack it. It was defended by numerous armed security personnel and anti-ship defense guns, but its main defense was the mighty Citadel fleet; a joint fleet made up of ships from the turian hierarchy, asari republics and salarian union. Even though the salarians and asari had some ships in the fleet, the turians; as the military masters of the galaxy, had the most ships in the fleet, with a single carrier, five heavy cruisers, ten light cruisers and twelve frigates, accompanied by numerous fighter wings. The flagship of the fleet however wasn't of turian design, it was asari. It was the asari dreadnought, Destiny Ascension, the most powerful warship the galaxy wielded. The ship utilized standard sleek, golden and beautiful asari architecture and was shaped like a christian cross, while the center was a bright blue mass accellerator, the ship's most dreaded feature, not to mention the other powerful weaponry the colossal vessel packed. It was a huge ship to, being at least seven hundred meters in length. No ship in the galaxy could compare with it. To say the Citadel was safe was an understatement; anyone who attacked it was a fool. It was the safest sanctuary in the galaxy, and if the fleet did get decimated, which was highly inpropable, the Citadel could close its multiple wards; the arms of the station, into a secure cacoon. The Citadel was made of a unknown alloy that couldn't be penetrated by any kind of weapon, not even napalm or nuclear-based weapons. Even phosphorous and, not yet mass produced, plasma couldn't penetrate it. So when the Citadel closed up, it became an unbreachable cacoon. Completely safe. And it could remain that way until reinforcements arrived through the nearby Widow Mass Relay.

Palin's office was simplistic; it had a window overlooking the Presidium below, while his desk sat in the middle, a single terminal on the left with multiple datapads clustered over it. The desk was made of rare walnut casing, shipped from Earth, with the room covered in the pictures of the previous executors, most of them turian, while an occasional few were asari. One seemed to have been taken down, but the name was still there on the label. A single quarian, back from the day when they had a republic and weren't nomads on some fleet. _They deserve it for trying to wipe out a sentient species. Brought it upon themselves. _Garrus looked at the turian, he wore the familiar markings of black and white on his face, the facepaint representing the planet Taetrus; the colony where the bastion of the turian hierarchy held their ground near the resolution of the Krogan Rebellions. The man was all regulations, his eyes should have been replaced by the Citadel Security insignia, because most of the time that's all he saw was his job. Garrus should have known better than to go to this blind, stubborn fool.

"My needs? These are the needs of the entire Citadel Palin! My ideas could save lives! The longer men like Jax, Fist, Dr. Saleon and those other criminals are on the loose, more people are in danger! I suggest a crackdown; armed response teams storm Chora's Den, the lower markets and most of the criminally infested areas; eliminate potential threats to citizen safety and make mass arrests on suspected crime lords. The only way we can fight crime is by fighting it with its own tactics; strength in numbers. We can't keep hiding like this, look at the image your putting on C-Sec! The civilian populace might think we're corrupt, and they could be right! How long is it before some of our officers start accepting bribery from criminals to keep silent? How long is it until fellow officers take advantage and actually aid the criminals security credentials and police information! Think of the resulting peak in crime rate, in civilian chaos! Palin...," Garrus slammed his talon on Palin's desk, "This has to stop! Take action now before its too late! They must be stopped!" Obviously Garrus' speech hadn't gotten through to the man, as Palin spoke, with more irritation.

"I understand your frustration Vakarian, but I'm not changing the policy! Corruption in C-Sec can easily be rooted out anyway! Its a matter of network-wide scrub. Now if you don't mind, I just got a message from Illium detailing a case against Saren Arterius. You may return to your duties." Palin didn't even give Garrus any sort of look as he returned to his terminal, his eyes skimming across the information detailed on screen. Garrus snapped a salute and turned to leave, but then Palin's words finally hit dead center, and he turned back around. "Wait, THE Saren Arterius? You mean the turian spectre?" Palin seemed to give a annoyed 'obviously' look before speaking, "Who else? Yes, a couple of quarians, a young female and a older male with marine training came to the Illium authorities claiming they had information that indicated Saren had betrayed the Council and had somehow acquired a geth army under his command to begin an invasion of Council space. They've dismissed it as nonsense, but one of my contacts got a hold of the information and relayed it back to me. Said I'd get someone to reinforce the claim. I doubt its true, but I'm certainly not dismissing it as false until no evidence can be acquired."

_Saren. Traitor. Saren was the mentor of Nihlus Kryik. What if the man had actually betrayed the Council? In his position as a Spectre, his treachery would be revealed publically and put a bad image on the turian people. Essentially he'd make all turians look bad. _Without thinking, Garrus looked down at Palin and spoke, "Let me do it, Executor." Palin looked at Garrus, his mandibles creased in curiosity, "You? Why do you want this case? Saren's a fellow turian." Garrus nodded. _That's why I must do it. _"If Saren is indeed a traitor, then that information would eventually be leaked to the press, and then to the public. Think of it Palin, think of the image that would plaster on our people. It'd make our people look bad. VERY bad. I need to do this. To make sure Saren is brought to justice in secrecy. Any other investigator wouldn't hesitate in leaking it to the media; turian or not turian."

Palin seemed to consider it for some time, the man lookingly blankly at his desk in pensive thought. Eventually he looked back up and a sigh escaped his mandibles, "Very well Vakarian, but no screw ups! You find evidence to prove Saren's a traitor and don't use intimidation to gain possession of that information. Now get on it." Garrus simply nodded and snapped a crisp salute before exiting Pain's office, the door closing behind him as he marched down the prestine corridors towards the Presidium.

_If those quarians have any intelligence, they'll head to the Citadel with their information. And that's where I should be able to find them. I can acquire the evidence from them and have it given to Palin. Saren's a traitor, I just know he is. The man's been dirty since the beginning, it was a matter of time before his reputation caught up with him._

_Now is that time._

**{Loading Fourth File}**

**{Interrogation Subject 001 showing signs of mental degradation and entering periodic hibernation. Apply metamorphine?}**

**{Command Accepted. Applying. Application complete} **

**{Session File Recovered. Session One, Attempt Two. Subject shows signs of strong mental health and immediate adrenaline rush. Session File Stamped: Unknown. Year Stamped is 2264)**

**"What the hell does that mean, Zero-Zero-One? What the hell is with these cryptic messages! Give me a goddamn name and this can all be over!"**

**- Carter Dielheart**

**"Its quite simple. Everyone during the Eden Prime War and after was at war with themselves as much as they were with Saren and his geth. War Without, and Within. Even Shepard was. I could see it the man's bloody eyes. Simple really. But of course, I'm the only sane one here, aren't I?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**Interrogation 02 still in progress. Initial attempts have yielded no results. Carter Dielheart has resorted to more direct questions. He hopes Subject 001 can recover pieces of his past through this. Will await further instructions. **


	5. Chapter 3 Treachery Is A Man's Sword

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER THREE:**

**TREACHERY IS A MAN'S SWORD**

_June 9, 2183_

_0919 hours. _

_Colony Outskirts, Mining Site, Colony Euphoria, Eden Prime._

_Mission Parameters: Deploy and secure the beacon. Survivor evacuation and defensive assistance remains secondary priority. Identify origin, designation and intent of hostile forces. Hostiles are to be shot on sight and assumed hostile until proven otherwise. Possible First Contact scenario._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Eden Prime._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Lance Corporal Richard Lenard Jenkins, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko_

All three of them stood at the cargo hold door that would soon open up to let out onto the lush, green grass of Eden Prime to begin their mission. Only god knew what enemies they would face, but Marcus would fight them like he would any other batarian; no mercy and no retreat. He was in his grey N7 armor, the armor like a swimsuit with armor plating ontop, the N7 logo written on the left side of his chestplate. His helmet was on, the visor down but his mouth open for the world to see. The helmet covered his entire face save the oral area. His Diamond Back Assault Rifle rested on the magnetic clamp on his back, while his Armageddon Shotgun sat connnected to the back of his waist. Out of shear insistence by Anderson, he had finally given in to bringing a Raikou model pistol sidearm on his left hip. To his right stood Kaidan, also in his grey armor and helmet, save the N7 logo. Kaidan seemed to prefer bringing every type of weapon with him; saying it was 'training that stuck.' He seemed most profficient with his assault rifle and pistol though, and let most of his tech and biotic abilities do the damage. It made him a valuable asset on the field to complement Shepard's biotic strengths. Jenkins was to his left and like Kaidan, had every weapon available, but he appeared more efficient with the sniper rifle, his being an punisher model. Kaidan's appeared to be a Hammer model. Jenkins was in the same armor, once again without a N7 logo.

Marcus watched as Nihlus fiddled with his executioner model shotgun, seeming to set it for disruptor rounds; rounds meant for draining shields. Marcus would be using his all-time favourite; incendiary rounds. Forget disruptors, incendaries burnt through shields and melted armor in seconds, laying waste to his opponents; it made for a useful ability, especially with his already powerful AR and shotgun. Kaidan would be using drill rounds, which penetrated through solid cover and Jenkins was going to be using standard rounds. For a sniper, Marcus was surprised Jenkins wasn't the one using drill rounds; it really would have helped in penetrating enemy cover. Still, he may have been the commander, but he barely knew Jenkins. The man probably used standard rounds to great effect, or he had some kind of special mod attached to the rifle for higher performance. Marcus was now waiting for orders; he may have been the executive officer on the ship and commander of the ground team, but it was ultimately Anderson who was in charge. He stood as he heard the hum of the Normandy's engines nearby as it descended into Eden Prime's atmosphere.

It didn't take long before the elevator door finally opened and Anderson stepped out onto the deck. "Captain on deck!" Marcus shouted as he stepped into a formal position and snapped a quick salute, followed by Kaidan, Jenkins and everyone else in the room save Nihlus, who just looked at Anderson. Anderson nodded at them before asking them to be at ease, in which everyone immediately dropped their salute and Anderson stepped in front of him. Joker's voice came over the comm as Marcus felt the ship come to a stop, the ship vibranting as it hovered. "Arriving at drop .1, Mining Site. Hostile presence is zero, so you don't have to deal with giant motherships from another dimension. I hope we get this 'doctor who' shit over with soon sir, Joker out." Anderson simply rolled his eyes as the seals popped and the cargo hold door began to slowly descend, opening to show the vast beauty of Eden Prime. Anderson spoke, loud and clearly over the sound of the Normandy's now loud and roaring engines, almost shouting, "You know the mission parameters Commander. Go in and secure the dig site. Neatralize any hostiles that get in your way of the objective."

"Hey Nihlus, you coming with us?" Jenkins asked, his voice full of excitement and wonder, obviously looking forward to fighting alongside the galaxy's most elite. Nihlus' reply came with a solemn tone, one with ego as he checked his shotgun once more.

"I move faster on my own. Commander, I shall meet you on the otherside of the dig site. Keep in touch via comm link." With anymore delay, Nihlus sprinted out of the Normandy's cargo hold, his feet landing firmly on the lush grassfields of the colony. As they watched, the turian spectre sprinted off with much grace and disappeared into the bushes below. Marcus raised a brow while Jenkins simply held a look of sheer disappointment. Anderson simply continued, "Go! Head straight for the dig site!" This time it was Kaidan's voice that rose up above the noise.

"What about survivors, Captain?"

"Evacuating civilians is a secondary objective. Locating the beacon is your top priority!" Anderson replied, his voice full or urgence. Marcus nodded.

"We'll get it done sir." Marcus replied, reaching behind his back and pulling out his rifle, lowering it in lower parry. Jenkins quickly equipped his sniper rifle while Kaidan prepped his tech armor and then equipped his assault rifle. The Tech Armor was apparently something sentinels got in exclusive. It was simplistic yet efficient; once activated, a orange barrier appeared in the form of holographic armor that surrounded the wearer; it was, in essence, energy armor that glowed orange. It made them look like a knight in a way. The Tech Armor would protect from further damage and when it was worn out or 'heavily damaged', it would self-destruct, not harming the wearer but sending out a massive blast that would stun any nearby hostiles, allowing for quick dispatch or tactical retreat. It was efficient, VERY efficient. Kaidan's armor seemed to glow in the light.

"I know you won't Marcus. Now go! And good luck!" With that, Anderson snapped a final salute before reapproaching the elevator. Without a second look at the captain, Marcus motioned for his squad to stay close as he leapt out of the hangar, landing in the grass below, followed by two more thumps behind him; Kaidan and Jenkins. It looked up to see the door closing simultaneously as the Normandy reversed out of the area. Within seconds the door was closed and with a loud, deafening bang, almost like a nuclear bomb going off, the Normandy shot past the area and back into the atmosphere.

"Okay, you heard the man. Lets get to the dig site, but keep a look out for survivors. I don't care what the Alliance or Council want, lives matter more over some relic. Understood?" Marcus ordered, looking at Jenkins and Kaidan for emphasis. They both nodded, acknowledging his orders. Jenkins mouth opened before they could move, "Eden Prime is technically my homeworld, I was born here. It was gorgeous. To see it like this...it hurts. Goddamn bastards are going to pay for every life taken here." Marcus looked at Jenkins and noticed a fire in the man's eye, one that meant pure fury was brewing in there. He liked it. He slapped the corporal on the shoulder, "That's what I want to here, soldier. Now move out! We've got a job to do, so lets get to it before our sentiments are heard by unwanted eavesdroppers." Motioning for Jenkins to take point and Kaidan to take the middle, Marcus took up the rear, making sure noone tried a flanking assault. He also took a quick peek into the distance and didn't like what he saw. Eden Prime's landscape was littered with huge spires that seemed to reach into heaven itself that were glowing with silvery light. But now they were just molten red debris, the tips blown right off by a weapon of unknownable power and might. He could see survivors shooting at hostiles located on the ground, and the hostiles fired back. All over, the landscape was filled with the exchange of gunfire; rockets, automatics and even a few CAAPDS turrets (abbreviation, 'Colonial Anti-Air Point Defense System). It was the roar of warfare.

As Shepard was looking back he bumped into something and stumbled back, a loud squelching sound, reminscent of a fart, followed. Looking at the source of the obstruction, he found a weird creature, seemingly a large ball of gas, tiny veins easily visible through the weird skin. The thing also seemed to hover; and it had friends. Lots of them, floating all over the place. He smiled at the creature when he heard Kaidan say, "What the hell are those?" He turned to see the Sentinel raise his rifle at one that was approaching him by Jenkins shook his head, "They're gasbags. Don't worry, their harmless." Marcus nodded as he thought. _But whoever's attacking this colony certainly isn't. _"Come on, lets keep moving. Dig site shouldn't be too far." They assumed previous positions as they continued up the path, grass brushing past their feet, large gatherings of rock surrounding the site with a single pond in the middle. Exiting the area they continued down a path cut off by a cliffside on the left side; all it did was give them a clearer view of the battle going on nearby. The path had numerous rocks planted around it, but the area was deathly silent except for the sounds of sniper rifle shots in the background and the sound of distant, alien gunfire. Something wasn't right, he could practically smell an ambush.

He raced up ahead and raised a fist, motioning for Kaidan and Jenkins to stop and crouch next to him, the Commander himself also crouching. His eyes scanned the area ahead, fishing out particular spots for snipers to take up position, vantage points for hostile ambushers and points of interest that his team could use to their own advantage. The entire pass was a death trap; they only had rocks to hide behind, any enemy coming from ahead would have trees, rocks and a cliffside to use to their advantage; hell, what if the enemy had aircraft? The cliffside was a perfect area for a gunship to mow them down and they'd have no alley of retreat, as hostiles from the path ahead would gun them down before they made the exit. In the end, this was the only way. He'd have to hope the enemy had no biotic or tech shock troops and hope his tactical expertise pulled through. Besides, he had fought an army of ten thousand batarians and survived, how hard could it be? _Yet again, I didn't have a squad to worry about and keep any eye on and I was prepared to die. More pressure is that Nihlus is keeping an eye on me, evaluating me. I have to prove I'm worthy. One mistake and we're fucked. _He decided to go with it. But he had a plan; send Jenkins forward and when any hostiles appeared, he and Kaidan would bombard them with sustained suppression fire while Jenkins moved up the middle and surprise them. He was putting Jenkins' life on the plate, but what were the chances of the enemy being dumb enough to stand up to a combined gunfire and biotic assault? If they enemy were smart, they'd stay in cover and avoid it as much as possible. That was their que. He wasn't going to risk breaking radio silence, so he resorted to good old hand signals.

He motioned with his left hand and waved it left to indicate Jenkins and then waved it forward for him to move forward. Jenkins did as ordered, his body, still crouched, sprinting up ahead as he rushed towards the nearest rock. Then Jenkins made his fatal mistake; he broke radio silence. "In position commander, what do you want me to do?" Almost immediately, Marcus heard distant humming noises, like miniture engines. The sounds were distant at first, but they were growing louder. _Getting closer. Shit, we've alerted them! _Jenkins must have heard it too as he moved out of cover, sniper rifle raised, "I hear hostiles incoming, commander. Engaging." Kaidan gave Shepard a paniced expression and he yelled though the comm, "Negative, repeat that's a negative. Regroup on me Jenkins! How copy? Regroup on-" Marcus didn't get to finish as the origin of the sounds arrived; in a trio. And they weren't the ground troopers they were expecting, they were drones. _Too mobile to use biotics on! Tech could work, but Jenkins won't stand a chance as Kaidan locks on! _

"JENKINS! COVER! NOW-" But it was too late. Much too late. The drones closed in, their dinner plate shape coming into view. They had a rectangular, blue glowing optic with what amounted to a fin ontop. The main feature was the mass accellerator weapon on its belly; it was a fully automatic weapon. The weapon lit up in bright blue, the weapon sound like something out of a cliche sci-fi movie; dark, high-pitched, plasmatic sounds ringing out as high-velocity rounds shot out and slammed into Jenkins' shields. He didn't stand a chance. The rounds ripped through the shields like tiolet paper and his armor split up in a deathly crack. Jenkins screamed in pain as the rounds ripped apart his chest, blood shooting out in all directions the rounds ripped him apart. The drone ceased firing, leaving the unfortunate corporal, the one that held so much promise, bleeding heavily on the ground, the sniper rifle discarded at his side as he coughed out blood, his ribcage almost visible. Kaidan's rage was visible for all to see.

"JENKINS! NO! SYNTHETIC ASSHOLES!" Kaidan seemed to charge forward, his assault rifle firing in a staccato beat as he fired round after round at the hostile drones. _Hostiles are to be shot on sight and assumed hostile until proven otherwise._ Hostile. Definitely hostile. He let the Diamond Back clatter to the ground as he equipped his raikou pistol, firing off potshots at the drones and giving the drones another threat to recognize. To his surprise the first round that impacted the drone ripped it in half, causing the drone to spontaneously explode in blue light. No shields or armor to speak of. _Recon Drones. Must have been searching for survivors. But who owns these buggers? What kind of enemy holds a weapon that could tear through shields like they aren't even there?_ Kaidan's shots followed, hitting the last two drones before they could retaliate. The drones followed the same fate as the first; exploding in bright blue light before their debris clattered to the ground.

"Jenkins! Stay with me!" Kaidan shouts could be heard from a mile away. Marcus cursed under his breath as he holstered his pistol and clutched his rifle in one hand, sprinting to Jenkins' broken form. The sight was more gruesome then he'd like, even the batarians weren't capable of such attrocities. Jenkins was dead, there was no way he was surviving these wounds. His entire chest was caked in blood, some of it already dry while more of it seemingly oozed out, the telltale signs of a white bone almost poking through the flesh. The red hot slugs fired by the drone still remained in the mans chest, the rounds being shaped like the old balls used in colonial era musket rifles. The man's mouth oozed blood as he desperately made horrible breathing noises, the sound like the hissing of suit seals. The man's beret had fallen off, a single round lodged in it while his sniper rifle lay uselessly at his side, his hand resting on the handle. Kaidan knelt to the man's left, trying to put pressure on the wound; but it was too big to cover. Marcus knelt next to the man, Jenkins' terrified eyes darting to him; begging for salvation, begging him to save him. But Marcus couldn't. He wasn't god, he couldn't miraculousy save people. He replayed Roshia's death all over again on Elysium, her petrified eyes begging for forgiveness.

"Sir..." Jenkins managed to get out, but any following words were cut off by another gurgle of blood as he coughed. Kaidan's omni-tool appeared on his arm, the indicator highlighted with a red cross; medigel. The stuff was a new invention, it was essentially the replacement for all medical doses. It was a fine orange goo or gel that you placed in the wound, and it would essentially absorb blood, block the wounds and also aid in healing faster. Most, if not all armor systems, now had built in medigel reserves and injectors. Whenever the armor was ruptured and skin punctured, the reserves would immediately inject medigel into the wound, allowing for excellation in combat performance and quick healing on the battlefield. Unfortunately for Jenkins, the rounds had been so powerful that they acted as explosive rounds; ripping apart the suit so badly that the injectors were destroyed by the sheer force of the strike. Even if the injectors still worked, they were designed to deal with small, individual wounds, not the huge opening in Jenkins' chest. Marcus placed a hand on Kaidan's shoulder, and the Sentinel looked up as he prepared the first dose of medigel. He shook his head, "He's lost too much blood Kaidan, and look...you can almost see his ribcage. Whatever did this...its made any chance of Jenkins surviving...nothing." He said as solemnly as possible, trying not to sound like a defeatist. He looked back at Jenkins, taking his hand and resting it on his chest, trying to look reassuring. The man simply smiled as he fought off blood in his mouth. In his entire career, Marcus had only lost one soldier under his command; that had been Roshia on Elysium when she had been hit directly by a rocket, the weapon blowing her legs clean off and leaving shrapnel all over her body, including one in her eye. He had pledged an oath that it would never happen again; he'd broken that oath. Jenkins was on the ground, dying and all he could was sit and watch, giving him a reassuring look. He'd be the last face he'd see; his commander, sitting there, watching him die.

"Commander, before I...," another gurgle of blood, "die...I wanted...to...tell you that I...was...honored...to have had...served...under you. I..." Jenkins screamed in pain as more blood poured out. This was getting unbearable. He wanted nothing more than to point the pistol and Jenkins' head and pull the trigger; put him out of his misery. These rounds had obviously been designed by synthetics for synthetics, not organics. "I...just want you...one last wish...sir." Marcus nodded and saluted Jenkins, a last call of respect to a dying soldier, "Read it out, soldier." He stated, trying to sound assuring and kind in the man's final minutes. The man didn't deserve a cold response when he was dying. Jenkins continued, "Give...those...bastards hell. There's...a war coming...I can feel...it. I won't be around but...I know you'll...do humanity...proud. Sir..." Marcus nodded and chuckled, "I'll do that and more Jenkins. And please...call me Shepard." Jenkins nodded at his commander one last time as he let out a final howl of pain, his eyes going blank. His calm smile vanished as his body started to go limp, "Its so cold, I don't even feel..." That's all that came out. The man's eyes seemed to stare into nothing as his eyes finally went fully blank, his expression creasing into...nothing. His whole body went limp, his heart stopped pumping, the ever present steady pulse in his hand vanishing. The blood continued to pore out in droves as the man simply stopped moving; Jenkins was dead.

"Jenkins, you crazy bastard...why...you were...damn it..." Kaidan muttered, unable to form a proper coherent sentence. Marcus didn't know if he could even push forward; what was next? Was Kaidan going to get killed next? Or was he? Just how powerful was their enemy? And what if they'd already detected and destroyed the Normandy? Were there even survivors? And what about the beacon..._Of course! That's why they're attacking the colony, they want what we want! The Beacon! _Then he looked back at Jenkins' still form. A soldier, a soldier who had an entire career ahead of him, destined for leadership, had died barely at the start of the mission, and for what? Some stupid relic? "FUCK THIS MISSION! I can't believe this shit! We should have come in with reinforcements! Why send us into a warzone with a three-man team, comprised a single rookie who's barely seen combat? That rookie is now dead and we don't even know what killed him! All for a fucking beacon!" Kaidan shouted first, as if reading Marcus' thoughts. He had a right to be angry. This mission had barely started and they already had one KIA. How long until all three were dead? He had fought batarians and a few mercenaries; that hardly qualified for fighting an enemy so powerful that simple recon drones could wipe out an entire squad. But they were on the ground now, no going back. If they left now, Jenkins' death would have been for nothing. If they wanted to make it worth something, they had to finish the mission. But they couldn't leave Jenkins' body here. He commed his omni-tool.

"Normandy, this is Lieutenant Commander Shepard leading the ground team, how copy?" The silence only lasted two seconds, followed by the response. It wasn't Joker, thank god. It was, surprisingly, Pressly who answered, "Solid copy, Commander. Sitrep." Marcus sighed as he once again looked at Jenkins' body, seeing Kaidan leaning over and sliding the man's eyes shut so as to put the man's body at peace. Those petrified eyes were too much to look at. He then looked back at the battle ahead of him, "Everything's gone TARFU, I repeat, TARFU. The whole colony looks like a warzone but...Jenkins he...we were ambushed by enemy forces and I made a bad call...I...Jenkins is KIA. He's dead." There was silence over the comm. He knows that the whole crew had probably heard. Jenkins had been on the Normandy for a longer period than Marcus, and it was enough to get to know the man. His death would have been a shock to the whole crew, and especially Kaidan, as the man would have also, has Jenkins' superior, taken it as his own responsibility. But it was Shepard's...Jenkins had died because of his orders, his mistake...if he'd sent Kaidan instead...his tech armor would have protected him better. Against his better judgment, he continued.

"We're marking the area via red smoke. We're going to push on ahead and finish what we started and link up with Nihlus. I'd...Jenkins...I think Jenkins deserves a proper burial, not to be left here. Come pick him up, look after the body. Tell...tell Anderson we're continuing with the mission." Kaidan looked at Marcus with a shocked expression and quickly marched up to him, his face covered in fury, "Jenkins died for this worthless piece of crap! He died for nothing! He died because some turian spectre decided we should pick up this piece of shit!" Marcus returned his rage, looking down at the man, "No, he'll die for nothing if we abandon this mission! We abandon this mission and we are disrespecting him! He died trying to retrieve this beacon. So we will retrieve this beacon and honor Jenkins' sacrifice. We leave now...and his death will be for nothing." Kaidan solemnly nodded before backing off, picking up his rifle and searching the perimeter, trying to keep his mind on something else. Nihlus must have been listening in, cause his voice was next, "The commander is correct, we must..." Marcus' expression was cold and rugged even through the comms, and his voice was ice, "Nihlus, shut the fuck up." Without waiting for an answer, he shut off the comm and reequipped his assault rifle, looking at Jenkins' body one final time, whispering a silent prayer as he did. He wasn't an overly religious man, but the man deserved it. He hardly knew Jenkins, but his death hit him almost as hard as losing a close friend. Just without tears involved. It was called the Mourner's Kaddish. Many didn't know it all too well because he kept it hidden, but he had a strong jewish background, his father being very zealous. His mother wasn't overly fond of it, but she didn't hate it either. Marcus had only trusted his squad on Elysium with that information, and they never held any prejudice, but maybe when he got to know this squad better...then he'd tell them. Marcus then approached the body and after some hesitation, he picked up Jenkins' punisher sniper rifle, collapsing it into its compact form and fitting it onto the magnetic clamp on his back. When Kaidan gave him an odd look he simply said, "He may have died, but I'll make sure he keeps fighting." Kaidan might not understand the significance of what he just said, but he might have gotten the gist of it.

But now the mission needed completion. With his rifle held steadily in his hands, Marcus took point up ahead, with Kaidan protecting his rear. They headed up the pass and noted on their motion trackers that no red dots were showing up. Just when Marcus was about to give the all clear, he spotted a squad sized amount of the little recon drones heading towards them, and motioned for Kaidan to take cover. Before taking cover, they both fired sporadic bursts into the swarm; multiple explosions giving them coverage to move behind the rocks flanking the woodland they hid in. Without peaking, Marcus held his rifle above his head and squeezed the trigger. Shots poured out of his Diamond Back, the satisfying sounds of explosions rattling his mind as he went crazy. Within seconds he heard the tell tale rapid-beeping sounds of the weapon's magnetic accellerator overheating and dropped the weapon, switching to his raikou. By that time however, the drones had been finished off and his Diamond Back had almost finished cooling down. He slowly moved up and past the glowing debris of the destroyed drones, Kaidan taking the rear as they moved up through the land. Nihlus' voice picked up, "I'm at a observation post, Commander. Lots of bodies, alot of them look fried. Literally. No hostiles to speak of. Wait." Marcus stopped and raised his fist, signalling Kaidan to stop. Nihlus' voice picked up again, "Change of plans Shepard, I've picked up lots of movement at the spaceport. Secure the beacon at the dig site and I'll meet you at the spaceport. Break." Nodding, Marcus threw his hand forward to signal their continued advance.

They hadn't reached the steep descent angle when they heard more gunfire, and this was closer. It sounded like the gunfire from the drones, which meant survivors were nearby. He rushed behind a nearby rock overlooking the outcrop, and he spotted the dig site up ahead. Just as he was prepared to lower his head again, a green dot appeared on his motion tracker, followed by two rapidly approaching red dots. A friendly pursued by two hostiles, speed suggesting more recon drones. He could see them to now; he spotted the color white appear from the dig site and immediately recognized who it was; Nirali's commander from the distress call, her pure white female phoenix armor glazing in the sunlight. She wore a helmet similiar to theirs, and they realized that her armor also had a tinge of pink to it; an odd color for soldiers to wear. She held a single pistol, a Stinger model by the look of it. The drones followed behind her, shooting eratically but always missing, the female marine pulling off multiple evasions to dodge the deadly high-velocity rounds. The rounds impacted the ground, sending up spirals of dust and dirt into the air, staining the woman's armor as she ran past, firing random shots behind her in an attempt to defend herself. He was about to react when the woman slid on the ground and reared backwards, finally taking aim and focusing her shots. Her shots were perfect, two rounds landing home on both the targets; both exploding in a torrent of fire and debris and crashing just in front of her. Marcus was about to get up and approach the marine, but a mechanical clicking sound caused him to retreat behind his cover. The marine noticed it as well, but as she looked at the source, her face twisted into one of sheer horror.

Marcus risked a look through the bushes and saw just what shocked the marine, and it made him freeze to the spot. Two figures held a human colonist on some sort of sleek, bug looking platform with three support frames, but the two figures' faces were hidden as they looked at the terrified colonist, who looked stunned and dazed; as if awaking from a sedative. By the cabling running through the open back of the figures, he could tell they were machines, which meant they owned the drones. Nirali's words echoed in his mind. _Synthetic forces..._The figures made more mechanical noises as they lowered the colonist on the platform. _What are they doing with him? _His unspoken question was answered as the colonist suddenly screamed in pain as his body shot upwards. At first he thought it was a gravity cannon, but when he looked closely, the colonist wasn't falling to the ground, he hang there. He was skewered on the top of a large spike, the spike having ripped right through his chest. He was horrified by what the synthetics were doing and he heard the marine gasp in horror. Both of the synthetics turned around and now Marcus got a full few of them. He didn't like what he saw, it made the skewered colonist even worse. Kaidan had seen it too, and was positively horrified. The synthetics were of the same arched back and legs appearence, a single, glowing blue optic for a head, where they got their nickname 'flashlight heads.' Kaidan spat the name out faster than he could.

"Dear god...they're geth!" He whispered through the comm, shocked by what he saw. Marcus nodded his head. He'd heard about the geth in secondary school history class. What he knew of them was that they were a race of networked artificial intelligence constructs created by the quarians three hundred and fifty years ago to serve as a labor force to make quarian life easier, and to also serve as backup units in the quarian military. But the quarians had made the horrible decision of convening them to AI status, and when one of them asked the famous question, 'Does this unit have a soul?', all out war between the quarians and the geth broke out; the quarians were terrified that the geth had gained sentience and feared they would plan to rebel at some point, and took the initiative, the geth, as a sentient species, did what what they had the right to do; they retaliated. The war, known by many as the 'Geth War' or 'Geth Insurrection' or by the quarians as the 'Morning War', lasted approximately thirty years; ending with total quarian defeat, with every quarian colony being overrun by geth forces and the geth exiling the quarians from their homeworld. Oddly enough, the machines had let the quarians escape instead of finishing them off, which remained one of the galaxy's mysteries till this day. He had no idea what happened to the quarians, if they still existed, but he knew about the geth; any organic ship that entered the Perseus Veil never returned and no geth ever left it. But here they were, looking at two geth, on Eden Prime, in the Attican Traverse. The Perseus Veil was in the Terminus, not the Traverse. What were they doing here?

Either way, what the geth were doing to the colonists was horrific and had to stop; now. The geth platforms, judging by their black armor casing, standard geth infantry, had noticed the female marine, and the marine sprinted behind one of the rocks before they could fully locate her, her M7 Avenger assault rifle exiting its collapsed form as she holstered her pistol and equipped it, the weapon entering full combat form across her breastplate, her breathing heavy. The two geth quickly raised their bug-like assault rifles, what he'd learnt from his father were pulse rifles, one of the most lethal rifles known to the galaxy and most likely had more power than the mass acellerators the recon drones held, moving left and right to search for the marine, while the marine herself looked about ready to charge out and confront her attackers. Without even thinking, Marcus made sure his incendiary rounds were activated and charged out, signalling for Kaidan to fire a incinerate at the left trooper as he ran forward, his body pulsing with biotic energy. Kaidan's omni-tool lit up as he launched a bright orange missile towards the first trooper, while Marcus mustered all the biotic power he could into his fist, launching it forward and sending a bright blue rocket of biotic energy at the second geth. They didn't stop running as they joined the marine behind her cover, letting their assault do the job. Peeking out from behind his cover, he watched as Kaidan's incineration blast impacted the left geth, causing it to erupt in flame, the platform falling to the ground as optics exploded and armor melted from the sheer heat of the attack. He watched as his warp impacted the second geth, the platform enveloped in blue energy that crackled all over its body, causing it to overload and explode, bits of armor chippings impacting numerous areas.

Seeing that all hostiles were neatralized, he holstered his weapons, followed by Kaidan. The marine followed up by holstering her avenger rifle and took off her helmet, turning to him, her features now clearer. She had smooth skin, which indicated young age. Her hair was bundled in a pony tail, her hair like Anderson's and Kaidan's; completely black in color. She had eyeliner which made her eyelashes a darker shade of black, making her very feminine, and her lips were light red, indicating a thick amount of lipstick. She was breathing heavily as she snapped a salute, introducing herself. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, Second Frontier Division, are you the one in charge here sir?" The woman named Ashley looked like a well-trained soldier, a woman not worthy of the rank she was given; she deserved more, she showed the experience of a Sergeant or Major, but her rank was a Gunnery Chief? That was lower than a Warrant Officer. Her stance was professional, which meant she must have been serving the Alliance military for quite a long while. Her jawline was firm and unwavering, meaning she was a seasoned soldier, but a veteran? She didn't look like she had seen much combat and by her age, she hadn't been around when the batarian slavers struck. After his time.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Marcus Shepard," he pointed at Kaidan with his rifle, "Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. What happened here Williams? I need a sitrep, everything you know. Enemy's intent, survivor count, location of your squad, personal combat performance." He ordered in rapidfire, waiting for Ashley to respond. She nodded, beginning her count, "Then I'm sure you know our enemy's geth. I have no idea what they are doing, but I can tell you what happened. We were patrolling the perimeter twenty minutes ago, and then that mothership dropped out of nowhere and began dropping geth all over the place. Next thing we know main colony is overwhelmed and the entire division is decimated. Any survivors are holding position somewhere on the outskirts. As for my squad...I think I'm the only one left sir." Ashley seemed hurried, afraid and most of all...regretful. She must be blaming herself for the soldier's deaths.

"Why are the geth attacking, Gunnery Chief? What's so important about Eden Prime that they risked leaving the Perseus Veil to get it?" Marcus had a feeling he knew exactly what, but he wasn't about to play a game of assumptions. These machines were emotionless and unhesitational; basing his counterattack on assumptions lead to deaths...like Jenkins. _How can I convince this soldier that it isn't her fault when I'm still blaming myself over Jenkins' death? _Ashley seemed to give an exasperated sigh, clearly not in the mood for further combat. Her armor was worn in quite a few areas, and it looked like a slug had just scraped her armor, leaving a tiny patch of blood and a sealed armor section filled with medigel. Ashley looked around the place and immediately looked away when she saw the impaled colonist. "I have no...wait, actually, I think it might have to do with that beacon those archaelogists dug up." Marcus raised a brow at Kaidan, and looked back at Ashley with a quizzacal look on his face. _The geth want the beacon too? Too many of these calculations end up with the same result being the beacon. That beacon has to be more important than Anderson is letting in on. Geth are machines, its not like they revere the protheans are something. _Or do they? No, they couldn't. Just machines.

"If they're also here for the beacon, then we have to hurry." Ashley expanded her eyes at him...she was angry. "What? So this entire attack is about some stupid prothean beacon? I watched soldiers die...good soldiers, friends, wives, husbands, spouses...children...die, slaughtered by those synthetic bastards...and you're telling me they died because they want a stupid beacon? You've got to be fucking kidding me, this can't be happening. God please grant me assurance that this is all just a horrible nightmare." Marcus shook his head at the woman, not because of her religious prayer, because he felt sorry for her. She'd seen the horrors of war, her friends slaughtered. What if she'd been married? Was her husband dead? Was it all the Alliance's fault for not having a fully-sanctioned orbital defense fleet? Or was it the colonist's fault for picking a spot so close to the Terminus? No, the colonists couldn't be blamed for this. Only the geth...possibly the Alliance.

"Can you fight Williams?" He asked, knowing just how careless his question must seem. He usually cared for the troops under his command, always letting express their concerns and opinions. He even let them give him command suggestions, but that was for less desperate situations. This was not a care-free situation; they were in a warzone packed with geth, so she was either in with them or she was out. No other option was presentable. Ashley, to his surprise, simply laughed.

"Ready? If you mean ready to get some payback, then hell yes sir, I'm right behind you." Without another word, she pulled out her Avenger assault rifle and equipped it in lower parry, awaiting her new commander's orders. A loud booming sound could be heard before they turned to see the large form of the Normandy lowering to hover over the ground. Ashley waved her weapon at it, "Your ship sir?" Marcus nodded, "Not my ship, I don't command it. But yes, I serve on it as its XO." Ashley simply nodded before a more frightening sound could be heard; the same sound he heard when that spike skewered that colonist. Turning back, he saw the spike descending, but the colonist on it wasn't the one he'd seen before; horrors had been inflicted upon it. The body now glowed a brilliant blue glow, the taint of synthetic implants rippling its body. Two pipes raised from the abomination's chest and reached into the once-humanoid's mouth, pale blue, synthetic optics replacing his eyes. He had a bald scalp; no hair at all. He wore tattered clothes, the body overgrowing them. His fingernails were like talons. Everything about the thing was no longer human, just pure machine. A husk.

"What the hell did the geth do to them!?" Ashley immediately raised her rifle and shot at the husk as it ripped itself of the spike and charged at them; ready to kill them. It certainly wasn't friendly anymore. Ashley continued to fire bullets into its flesh until it finally fell dead, but that wasn't the end of its assault. It let out a huge, inhuman scream as it fell and released sporadic amounts of electricity, overloading their weapons. "Damn it, weapon overloaded. Come on, we should get to the beacon. Its just fifteen meters this way. I tried to secure it when those drones attacked me." Ashley motioned for Marcus and Kaidan to follow her, and that they did. They didn't even stop for breath as they finally reached the dig site, but when they did, they found the beacon missing; it was gone.

"But it was right here! It must have been moved!" Ashley explained, motioning them to follow her up the ramp up ahead, emerging into a small, makeshift camp. Everywhere, the bodies of numerous dead marines and colonists lay, being rounded up by two husks. These ones were already transformed, and upon entrance, charged right at them. The trio didn't exactly hesitate in shooting the monsters, streams of gunfire ripping the two abominations apart. Without even looking back, Ashley motioned them to head down the left path but they were interrupted when they heard someone talking nearby; human. "Wait up Williams, I've found survivors." Ashley immediately stopped and immediately backed up behind him, both Kaidan and her giving him a rear guard. Entering a hacking code, Marcus entered the building and prepared for hostiles, only to find two scientists. The room was a grey color, with two bunks on left side and work terminals near the windows. One scientist was a woman, who immediately shouted, "Don't shoot! We're human!" The other one was a man, but he clearly wasn't in his right head; he looked delusional. His next words sounded delusional as well.

"The swords of evil have arrived to kill us all..."

...

"Wait, Wait, Wait. An insane scientist? This sounds like something out of a really bad remake of Frankenstein." Jason stated, the child not happy with the imagining.

"I knew Marcus well, he didn't make stuff up. The scientist was delusional, and obviously religious by the words he used. Like I was saying..." Tali continued.

...

"The swords of evil have arrived to kill us all! Servants of Hades himself! They rise from the underworld to destroy us, you can't save us! We're all doomed!" The man babbled, Kaidan widening his eyes in confusion. Marcus raised a brow, "What the hell's wrong with him? Is his mental health in check? Is he seeing a doctor?" He asked, curious as to why the man was spouting out religious crap...especially stuff from old, ancient and defunct greek mythology. The scientist just rambled on, "You can't stop the rising darkness! My words must be heeded! Hades comes up in a huge ship that promises to provide horrors of the worst kind! He whispers to you, like...like...Argh! He speaks to me, like...ARGH!"

"Right..." Kaidan said, looking like he was about to break out chuckling. Now wasn't the time, these people were most likely traumatized. Marcus then realized where he had heard the woman's voice from, "You're Dr. Warren! I remember you thanking me after I saved the colony." The woman named Rebecca Warren nodded, smiling, "Yes, you must be Staff Sergeant Marcus Shepard. Its good to see you again." Marcus nodded, also smiling at her innaccuracy, "Yeah, but its actually Lieutenant Commander now." Dr. Warren looked geniunely surprised, laughing halfheartedly, "Wow. And to think you were only here twelve years ago." Marcus nodded, looking back at the other doctor, "Who's this you find yourself in the...company of?" He really didn't consider a raving loony to be company. That was just strong tolernace of unwanted company.

Rebecca looked at the male with a weary look and back at Marcus, "Dr. Robert Manuel, he's harmless I asure you, but alittle mentally unstable after the battle at Eden Prime all those years ago. He was forced to watch as the batarians tortured his wife and then threw her into the ship's engine drives. He's been mentally scarred for the rest of his life. He calls the batarians the 'sinners of Zeus' or something and yaps on about how the 'angels of heaven', aka the Alliance, will make the sinners pay for their misdoings. All nonsense if you ask me." Rebecca stated, clearly disturbed by Manuel's behaviour. He may have been mentally unstable, but whispers in his mind? What? Manuel spoke up before he could.

"The whispers in my mind tell me you are hostile. They say I must kill you. I must...heed their wishes. I must. They promise silence. I MUST OBEY!" Without hesitation, Manuel had just blindly charged at them. At the word kill, Marcus had been to unholster his pistol, but Manuel had already landed on him and wrapped his hands around his neck, trying to choke him. But Manuel was a simple scientist; he was a N7. Marcus glowed in biotic energy as he threw Manuel into the wall nearby and reared his Raikou pistol at Manuel's head. "Stand down, Manuel! I don't want to have to kill you!" He was ready to pull the trigger if Manuel so much as reached out a hand. The man wasn't just mentally unstable, he was insane!

"The whispers tell me I have failed! They tell me I must pay for mistakes! I must...I have to!" Before Marcus could do anything, Manuel reached into the nearby draw and drew a pistol, pointing it below his chin and pulling the trigger. Bloody splattered the wall as the round exited out of his skull, and onto the floor. Manuel simply fell to the ground, dead. Rebecca looked at the scene in horror as Marcus holstered his pistol. The man's actions hadn't been normal. He put a reassuring hand on Rebecca's shoulder, "I need you to stay here and lock the door. Nobody gets in, or out. Okay? We have to get to the bottom of this."

...

"So he just went crazy?" Langway asked, raising his hand.

Tali shook her head, "They didn't know it until later on and discovered the effects, but Manuel had been indoctrinated by Sovereign. The whispers were all in his head. Marcus said he had felt sorry for him, and had he known, would have killed Manuel earlier and ended his pain. But you've made me spoil the story! Now where were we? Uh yes, Nihlus' grim fate..."

...

_June 9, 2183_

_0926 hours._

_Colony Center, Spaceport, Colony Euphoria, Eden Prime._

_Mission Parameters: Deploy and secure the beacon. Survivor evacuation and defensive assistance remains secondary priority. Identify origin, designation and intent of hostile forces. Hostiles are to be shot on sight and assumed hostile until proven otherwise. Possible First Contact scenario._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Eden Prime._

_Spectre Nihlus Kryik_

The turian spectre continued to move inbetween cover with surmounting grace, never once letting the geth even get a peek at him as he pumped them full of shotgun holes. The Commander and Kaidan had managed to draw the attention of a majority of the geth ground forces, allowing Nihlus the ability to move past with minimal resistance. Most of the colonist and marines he passed were dead before he got there, while some others were just too scared to come out, or cautious of a turian on a human colony. It wasn't long before Nihlus arrived at the spaceport, the area just below him. It was a large building, with a single escalator used for transporting cargo to the other half of the spaceport located just to the left of the great, white building. Numerous pieces of cargo were littered in the grass plains infront of the spaceport; abandoned when the civilians ran to hide from the geth attack. He watched as numerous geth platforms; mostly troopers and a few of the transformed colonists began scouting the area, the colonist abominations seeming to follow the geth like servants. Nihlus leapt down from his vantage point and ran down across the holding point, where he eventually landed in a prone position in the glass plains, in front of a ten foot cargo container with flipped forklift. He stood up and checked his weapon's mass accellerator to make sure the disruptor rounds were ready and readied a overload program on his omni-tool.

Peeking around the crate, he noticed most of the geth, save one had mostly left for the escalator, one of the large geth, a crimson red construct that towered at about 6 foot 1 classified as a geth destroyer and specialized in shotgun combat, had lead the numerous troopers and a single platform holding what is dubbed a geth pulse sniper rifle; a sharpshooter. That thing would pierce shields, armor and flesh in a single shot, the weapon having enough power to rip through cover and blow a turian's entire torso off. An anti-materiel rifle if he heard right, but he thought the concept had been abandoned after the First Contact War. Obviously not.

He spotted the single trooper and activated his cloak, sneaking up behind an deactivating it at the last second. Before he could fire his shotgun into the trooper's back however, a shot rang out and hit the geth's optics, blowing its head right off. The platform fell limply on the ground, its platform unmoving. Nihlus thought that Shepard and his team had arrived, but instead, when he turned, he saw the approaching figure of a fellow turian; a figure he recognized all too well. The turian held a single Karpov model pistol, lowering the weapon at the sight of Nihlus, his expression stoic. The turian wasn't the one he once knew however; he had what looked like cybernetic upgrades all over his face, his eyes glowing with the same blue glow of the husk creatures. His mandibles were cut and bruised, showing the taint of cybernetics under his scars. The turian was also a biotic, one of the rarest turian biotics, with also explained the blue glow being more powerful than usual. The turian named Saren Arterius; his mentor, approached, his mandibles twitching in a smile. "Nihlus, it has been a long time my student."

"This isn't your mission Saren, what are you doing here?" He asked the fellow spectre. Saren simply approached and placed a talon on Nihlus' shoulder, reassuring him, "The Council thought you could use some extra help on this one, friend. Besides, I'd be glad to fight alongside a fellow turian once again." Nihlus simply stood as he saw the large form of the geth flagship, the ship being of mythically monolithic proportions, easily towering the biggest skyscrapers on Palaven. Still a dot compared to the Citadel, but it was still massive. "By the spirits Saren, look at that ship! Its huge! Nothing we have in the turian fleet could match that! The situation looks bad." He felt Saren's hand slide off his shoulder. He continued to look in horror at the sheer size of the ship, terribly unaware of the sound of a Karpov pistol activating behind him.

"Don't worry, I have the situation under control" Those were the last words Nihlus heard from Saren.

He felt the pistol reach the back of his head, but he didn't get to move in time. The gunshot rang out, Nihlus' skull breaking apart as the round pierced it, the dead spectre crumbling to the ground dead.

"I'm sorry Nihlus, but you would only try to stop the envitable. We organics rely on emotion instead of logic. Sovereign has allowed me to see that." With that, Saren shot Nihlus' body one more time, the purple pool of blood thickening from the shot as Saren summoned his hover platform, stepping onto it and flying off to the other end of the spaceport. He is, however, blissfully unaware of the dockworker watching him.

"Oh shit!" Were Powell's only words.

**{Loading...}**

_June 9, 2183_

_0926 hours._

_Colony Center, Spaceport, Colony Euphoria, Eden Prime._

_Mission Parameters: Relocate the beacon. Enemy forces confirmed to be Geth. Hostiles looking for beacon. Locate and extract beacon and neatralize any hostile counteraction. Beacon is a HighPri. Link up with Nihlus Kryik._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Eden Prime._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams._

A single gunshot rang out, echoing through the valley.

"Double time it people." Marcus ordered, his Diamond Back levelled so the butt connected with his shoulder blade, moving up to take point while Kaidan took center and Ashley the rear. It didn't take long before the ground began to shake uncontrollably, a gigantic red mist forming behind the spaceport.

"Earthquake!" Ashley shouted, desperately trying to find a handhold but simply fell to the ground, tripping over Kaidan who also fell.

The earthquake theory was disproved on sight as the red mist cleared and the gigantic, nightmarish warship that would put the IJN Yamato to shame, rose up and into the atmosphere. No he got a full look at it, and the thing looked VERY much like a gigantic squid. Its squid like 'head' or main body rose up like a demon arising from hell, with its huge, goliath legs hanging below it. It wore blood red bug-like armor that shone brightly in the sun of Utopia. The gigantic ship let out a ear-piercing synthetic horn sound, before speeding up and entering the atmosphere of Eden Prime so fast it could possibly match the Normandy. Bits of red electricity still sprout, but it wasn't much to worry about.

There hadn't been much enemies to eliminate; a few husk creatures but luckily most of the geth must have left on their flagship or that had been the majority; the rest being killed by the marines. When they walked up the platform, Marcus was heading for the escalator when Kaidan cried out.

"Sir! Its Nihlus!" Marcus turned the container and expected to see the spectre running towards them and was prepared to start boasting about how long the turian took. But when he turned, he saw only the cold, bloodied remains of the spectre, his body bathed in purple blood. He searched the body and found the entry wound.

"Someone shot him in the back of the head. Nihlus isn't that cocky and incompotent, he's a spectre. That means he was getting all nice with someone; and that someone shot him in the back. What kind of coward would do this?"

"Someone like...this coward!?" Ashley shouted, returning dragging the struggling body of a colonist from behind the crates, dropping him next to Nihlus' body before she drew her stinger pistol. Marcus put a hand on the pistol and lowered it, giving Ashley a look of 'let me handle this.' She simply nodded and reholstered the pistol, moving out to patrol the perimeter. Kaidan decided to do the same, leaving Marcus and the colonist alone.

"Before you ask, I didn't kill that guy! I didn't kill Nihlus!" The colonist shouted, obviously terrified. Marcus shook his head as he crossed his arms, "Then why were you hiding behind the crates? He wouldn't make nice with a geth and he's a Spectre, he doesn't let his guard down. There's nowhere a sniper could take advantage so tell me...how does this eliminate you as a suspect? Tell me that?" Marcus said his usual, calm, questioning voice. "What's your name?" He further asked, wanting to know who and what he was talking to you.

The colonist eyed him with terror, "Powell. My name is Powell, I'm a dockworker. I hid behind the crates when the attack hit. All I heard was screaming. It was horrible. Then...then this giant ship came...it was massive!" Marcus rolled his eyes at Powell, "You still haven't answered my question and I'm not buying the scared civilian act."

"I'm not acting! I didn't kill your friend, he didn't even know I was here! I'm not even armed, how could I have killed him? Even I did have one, I don't know how to use one!" Powell pleaded, Marcus finally convinced. The colonist had a point; he didn't look like the gun wielding type. "Then did you see who did? You must have had eyes behind the crate. What did you see?" Powell simply nodded, opening his mouth to speak, "Some...turian...I think his name was...Saren! That's what the turian called him, Saren. I think they knew each other, Saren seemed to call him 'student.' Then...he betrayed him. Shot him in the back of the head. Then he said something about how Nihlus would only try and stop him and how we rely on emotions instead of...rationality or something. Then he mentioned someone called Sovereign. After that he jumped on this platform thing and flew off."

"Did you see where he went?" Marcus asked, curious as to who Saren was and what the hell Sovereign was. He needed to get to the bottom of this. First Jenkins dead, now Nihlus. This mission was turning out to be a disaster. Powell nodded, pointing at the escalator, "Otherside of the spaceport, its where we took the beacon after digging it up. We had it here and moved it there just when the attack started. I think he's after it. Take the cargo train, its the only way there." Marcus nodded and was about to leave when Ashley ran up, "So Powell, what the hell is 'eighty kilograms worth of military-grade fragmentation grenades' doing in these canisters. Don't play innocent, your name is written on the contract forms!"

Marcus looked at Powell with a glare, the man simply scoffed, "It was good for business. Got me credits, made me rich. It wasn't hurting anybody." Ashley guffawed and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, throwing him into the wall, "Not hurting anybody? All the Alliance has done has protected your sorry ass, and to thank us, you steal from our supplies? Supplies that could have greatly aided us in the defense of this colony! My friends died because of your selfish greed! You...disgrace to humanity! You have sinned greatly!" There she went again, religious poutings. Sinners? Sounded alot like a Christian. _Never trust Christians, son. They copied off us, its all in the book. Their a fuckwit religion. _Marcus didn't think so though. He believed everyone had a right to believe in what they wanted. Christianity wasn't a fuckwit religion, it was religion based upon many people's opinions. He accepted that.

Marcus put a hand on Ashley's shoulder, but spoke to Powell, "Get out of here Powell, and hope the geth don't find you. Find Dr. Warren, maybe she'll be in the mood to take care of you, you lying, thieving scumbag." Ashley immediately dropped Powell, and the colonist ran like his life was on the balance.

"Come on, we have a mission to finish."

_June 9, 2183_

_0939 hours._

_Colony Center, Spaceport Docking Center, Colony Euphoria, Eden Prime._

_Mission Parameters: Reach Beacon before Saren Arterius. Geth forces determined to be strongest in this area. Make a sweep of the area and extract the beacon. Saren Arterius is a Council spectre and dockworker verbal and visual account indicate high treason. If you encounter Saren, you are given sanction to incarcerate or execute him. Be warned; geth forces ordered to destroy colony with high-explosive charges. Disarm charges to save surviving civilian populace._

_Mission KIAs: Spectre Kryik, Nihlus. Lance Corporal Jenkins, Richard. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Eden Prime._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. Intel suggest Saren Arterius is in the area. As said, sanction given to deal freely with the target._

With a final shot of his new Punisher sniper rifle, the geth destroyer's head was blown clean off, his weapon now overheated from firing two shots in such rapid succession. _That was for Jenkins. Bastards. _Switching his punisher for his armageddon shotgun, he raced out and charged straight at a nearby geth shock trooper; the hostile recognized by its ability to overload the shotgun's mass accellerator and create a fireball called carnage and its milky white armor color. Before the geth could react, he had pumped a single shell into its chest, causing the shields to explode in a flurry of electricity. Not waiting, he flared with pulsing biotic energy and turned into a wrecking ball, his body smashing into the platform and ramming it into the wall, allowing him to ram his shotgun into its optics and pull the trigger, bright white liquid flushing out as the optics exploded, destroying the geth. Without hesitation, he picked up a approaching trooper and threw him over the edge before launching a cascading shockwave of biotics into a stationary squad of troopers and a sniper, sending them flying in numerous directions, allowing Ashley to finish them off.

"Second bomb disarmed! I'm going for the third!" Kaidan shouted through the comms, just as Marcus switched to his Diamond Back and leapt behind cover as two more geth destroyers, flanked by numerous husks, approached his position. He thumbed his omnitool, "Copy that, Alenko." " He switched to Ashley, "Williams! We need to give Lieutenant Alenko more time! And I need support, got two destroyers and those husk creatures on my 12. You distract the destroyers, I'll take the husks." Ashley gave her acknowledgment through a green beep on the comms before he heard Ashley's voice, "This is for Nirali you sons of bitches!" Fire peppered the right destroyer, shields flickering at the shots. A burst of orange light and a carnage impacted the destroyer, causing its shields to rupture and implode. Both destroyers finally took notice and turned to analyze the new threat, allowing Marcus to kill the husks with well placed, timed shots.

Without thinking, Marcus charged and rolled under the right destroyer's legs, jumping up onto its back. Dropping his diamond back, he immediately equipped his armageddon and pumped two rounds into its back causing it to collapse backwards onto the ground; with Shepard still on the back. The impact knocked the wind out of him, and he saw the second destroyer pointing its geth pulse shotgun at his face. He tried to throw the destroyer away, but was beaten to it. One of the bombs, enveloped in blue light, smashed into the destroyer's torso, throwing it onto the grey floored ground, pieces of ripped machine and white liquid pouring out of the dead body. He watched as Kaidan, illuminated in biotic light stood next to him, looking down at him smugly.

"Get...this...thing...off...of...me." Marcus tried to shout, but his voice was muffled by the cold, hard metal of the destroyer that lay on him. He watched as both Ashley and Kaidan pushed the thing off, allowing Marcus to get to his feet. He turned to Kaidan, "One more bomb left?" Kaidan shook his head smiling, "I just saved you with the last one, Buck." Marcus rolled his eyes at the reference and motioned for Ashley and Kaidan to follow him to the beacon. They ran down the side railings and onto the aforementioned deck. Nothing in sight but the single beacon.

It wasn't what he expected either; it looked like a strut surrounded in glowing green energy. The area behind it however, caught his attention more. The lush forest behind it glowed brilliant red, a testament to the destruction the geth flagship caused. What was once lush forest was now unrecognizable; it was just melted, wiped out...nothingness. It reminded him of the Tunguska Event, just on a smaller scale and much more horrifying knowing not an asteriod, but a ship, managed such destruction. His attention turned back to the glowing beacon, the sounds of beeping electronics coming from it.

"Look at it! Its...amazing! Unbelievable!" Kaidan exclaimed in awe, amazed by the sight. It was truly beautiful. Ashley, out of sheer curiosity, simply approached it, looking as if she was in the presence of god himself. Marcus shook his head as he let both of them examine the beacon, Marcus keying his comm, "Normandy, the beacon is secure. All enemy forces neatralized. We need immediate extraction, area looks bad. Yeah, bad as in like a nuclear bomb just fell. Nihlus is also KIA, we think a man named Saren Arterius might have been here and betrayed him. Recommend haste, that flagship just shot up into space like a overly energetic child going to the playground."

In the foreground, he noticed Ashley getting so close to the beacon, the glowing energy actually touched her. And that's all it took. Ashley immediately began struggling against an invisible force as she began moving forward, as if pulled by some unseen strings. "Commander!" Kaidan shouted, looking at him in a scared manner. Marcus nodded as he ran forward and wrapped his arms around Ashley's waist, throwing her out of the way. Instead of dragging Ashley, he felt himself being dragged forward until finally being lifted into the air and hanging there. His vision went blank as images flashed through his mind. He heard alienated screaming, the sounds of children crying, explosions, the sounds of weapons fire he had never heard before. He heard booming synthetic voices promising to bring about the extinction of entire civilizations. Then the images came.

He saw dying people, others begging for mercy before being slaughtered by...geth? The images were red and covered, like some horrible nightmare. He heard synthetic screaming, strings of red blood covering the images like a soaked camera lens. The images sped up, with more screaming, explosions, dying and decaying corpses, synthetic voices demanding submission and destruction, and finally he saw a bright, yellow sun, before zooming in on a darkened planet. The image zoomed on the planet and then he saw it, emerging from the darkness; the geth bug flagship, still in its squid like form, still immensely enormous as it approached him. Its words boomed, so organic and yet so synthetic. He oozed nightmares of another world.

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING.**

The images finally stopped, the world returning to him in a misty haze. He fell to the ground, and everything around him blackened out. He couldn't believe what he had just seen.

_If now was a time to shit scared, yeah, holy shit._

**{Loading...}**

_June 9, 2183_

_1002 hours._

_Unknown Region of Space, unboard unnamed Geth Flagship._

_Eden Prime War, Post-Battle._

_Spectre Saren Arterius, Matriarch Benezia M'Soni_

Saren sat on the bridge, idly looking at the wall in smug satisfaction. _Eden Prime is destroyed and the humans failed to stop me. My geth army will be invaluable in attacking my ultimate goal. Those council fools won't see it coming._

**YOUR ORGANIC COLLECTIVE IS WEAK AND FRAGILE. WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING. YOU SHALL BE SPARED. YOU WILL NOT FALL IN THE COMING HARVEST. **

"Of course, Sovereign. I'm no use to you without my mind. My geth serve you faithfully."

**I DO NOT CARE FOR THE INFERIOR MACHINES. THEY SERVE A SINGULAR PURPOSE. WE SERVE MANY. THE MACHINES' WORSHIP OF US IS INSULTING. THEY WILL BE DESTROYED IN THE COMING HARVEST. THEY HAVE NOT GRANTED THEMSELVES SALVATION FROM WHAT IS YET TO COME. THEY KNOWN ME AS NAZARA. NAZARA IS MY TRUE DESIGNATION.**

"I apologize...Nazara. I meant no insult. I am also breeding an army of krogan to aid our cause. The Citadel will be yours."

**YOUR ATTEMPTS TO APPEASE ME ARE FRUITLESS UNTIL YOU HAVE ACHIEVED OUR GOAL. THE KROGAN WILL BE HARVESTED LIKE ALL THE REST. THEY WILL SERVE US AS CANNON FODDER ON THE BATTLEFIELD AS THEIR WORLDS FALL. ONE BY ONE. THE CITADEL WILL SERVE AS OUR GATEWAY INTO WHICH IS OURS. THEIR GOVERNMENT WILL BEG TO BE HARVESTED.**

"I do not aim to please anyone, much less appease, Nazara..."

**ASARI. MAKE YOUR PRESENCE KNOWN TO THIS ORGANIC. YOU CANNOT HIDE IN ME.**

Saren turned behind him to see the approaching form of Benezia. The asari was a matriarch, one of three stages of asari life, similiar to what teenagers and adults were to other species. The first stage is the Maiden stage where all asari hit puberty and begin to become curious of the world. They are restless, and most become mercenaries or strip dancers at this age. The Matron stage, the second stage begins at age 350, which, keep in mind, asari live for essentially ten centuries and signals their desire to settle and raise children. The Matriarch stage, the third and final stage, starts at age 700, and they are very wise, powerful and spend most of their time in asari space.

Benezia was a matriarch, and so she was pretty wise, wiser than him at least. She wore a helmet similiar to what a human greek warrior would wear, but the rest was made of brown cloth, no armor to speak of and the cloth was tightened so much that her cleavage and was unwantingly large and highly visible. He eyed her with a glare. Benezia and her asari commando servants had attempted to convince him to betray Sovereign, but Sovereign had retaliated and conquered the minds of herself and her servants. Now she served them fully and unquestionably, her mind owned by Sovereign.

The asari cleared her throat, "The colony of Eden Prime remains intact."

Saren widened his eyes at the revelation.

**THE MACHINES FAILED TO DESTROY THE PITIFUL COLONY. EXPLAIN THEIR FAILURE. WE DEMAND IT.**

"A human alliance vessel responded to the distress call; I identified it as the Normandy SR-1...a stealth frigate. Commander Shepard was onboard. He managed to save the colony." Benezia said with cold efficiency, as if reading off a shopping list of what weapons to buy to kill her neighbours. Saren cursed in turian. _Shepard? That human idol saved the colony? Great, defeated by a coincidence. This hero needs to be destroyed. And what if Anderson is with him? That human has caused enough problems for me already, him and his human girlfriend._

"And the beacon?" Saren asked in a cold, uncaring tone. If Shepard had managed to reach the beacon...Sovereign would be furious. Hopefully the geth had been competent enough to do that.

"The humans may have used it. Shepard tapped into it, but it exploded." Saren started on that, infuritated.

**UNACCEPTABLE. UNACCEPTABLE. FIND THIS HUMAN AND DESTROY HIM. HE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO DELAY THE HARVEST ANY FURTHER. IT HAS BEEN DELAYED LONG ENOUGH.**

Saren immediately raced forward, growling in frustration as he wrapped his talon around Benezia's neck and threw her into the wall, snarling and hissing. Finally calming down, he spoke. "I want this human, Shepard, eliminated. Dead. Along with his ship destroyed." Benezia nodded and Saren released his vice like grip, backing away. Beneiza spoke with renewed vigor.

"Jacobus has reported in. He's in pursuit of two quarians who may be trying to warn the Council of our plans."

"Names?" Saren asked.

"Tali'Zorah and Keenah'Butras." Benezia informed him.

**NAMES MEAN NOTHING. FIND THESE QUARIANS AND ELIMINATE THEM. THEY ARE A THREAT.**

"It shall be done." Benezia stated, "I've also found my daughter. Liara T'Soni. What should I do with her?"

**YOUR ASARI KINFOLK WILL SERVE US. BRING HER TO US FOR ASCENSION. IF SHE REFUSES, DESTROY HER. **

"Of course. Just because she is my daughter doesn't I shall show any mercy. She will either join us or die. I will depart for Therum immediately. I will have a geth cruiser take me there." Saren immediately shook his head, not out of disagreement, but because he didn't think Sovereign envied the idea of 'inferior machines' touching his hull, "No, when we return to Virmire, you can send a regiment of geth platforms and a frigate to that planet to deal with her, I need you for another mission. Nazara and I have discovered that a being called the Thorian resides on a human colony called Feros. It may hold the cipher and allow me to understand the visions so we can find the Conduit. While I go to Feros, I want you to take a geth continegent and some of your commandos to Noveria. Its a multi-racial colony, mostly corporate executives. I want you to find out what happened to our research facility there. We were breeding a army of Rachni there to reinforce our geth ground troops, not to mention breeding krogan cannon fodder on Virmire, but they've gone silent. Discover why. I will take Shiala and her squad with me. I need her mind-melding capabilities."

"As you wish, Saren." Benezia simply nodded looked out the viewport. Saren smiled, "Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."

**AND THE HARVEST SHALL BEGIN. ANEW.**

"Indeed." That was all Saren said as Sovereign, the dreadnought of unbelievable might and origin, glided through space towards Virmire; Saren's base of operations.

**"I don't think I fully understand, 001. 'Treachery is a man's sword?' What the hell is that meant to mean?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Some things hings should remain secret. That was Saren's greatest weapon; secrecy. He was hiding behind the Council's backs the whole time, even if they refused to realize it. Treachery was simply his sword, his handle. He used his friendships to murder good people in cold blood. Nihlus was just one of those poor bastards that came across him. Jenkins? I don't know if Saren's treacherous sword could be part of that."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"But what about Tali'Zorah? We both know she played a huge role in Shepard's downfall. We also know Garrus Vakarian was largely involved."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"(chuckles) You're getting impatient. I'm getting to that. And she was far from old back then, no...(chuckles) Back then, she was young, and possibly the most vibrant person I ever met. Hell, I'm not surprised Shepard had fallen in love with the woman. Besides, what the fuck do you mean downfall? Mate, if anything, that quarian girl uplifted Shepard's tenfold. Without her round or that turian, Garrus, he would have fallen apart years ago and we wouldn't be sitting here having this nice conversation. No, instead we'd be picking the piles of crap left by the Reapers and living in the galactic center, dipshit."**


	6. Chapter 4 Two Kinds of Idiocy

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER FOUR:**

**TWO KINDS OF IDIOCY**

_June 16, 2183_

_1423 hours._

_Emporium, Presidium, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex_

"Come on you puny pyjak, spit it out before he end up on the wrong end of my shotgun." Wrex said with pure loathing in his voice, the human squirming under his grasp, his eyes widened in terror at the krogan holding him.

He was in the middle of the Emporium at the time, and numerous asari, turians, salarians, humans, and many other civilians of the other races stared at him in shock, not daring to make a move. Asari may have biotics, but so did krogan battlemaster, and Wrex was the strongest battlemaster around. The store manager, a hanar named Ypris by face name, was trying to reason with the krogan, but to no aveil, "This one asks that you please let go of the human before I am forced to call C-Sec." Wrex gave the hanar a glare, and the jellyfish immediately backed off, flying back two meters. The hanar were very similiar to jellyfish on the human homeworld of Earth, and every time they talked, their body seemed to glow. They also regarded the Protheans as the Enkindlers, aka...gods. Stupid pyjaks.

Once finished staring off the hanar, he turned back to the human, unveiling a toothy grin. The human simply squirmed more, "Okay! Okay! Fist! His name is Fist!" Wrex rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I know that you retarded human, I meant where the hell is he?" The human simply gulped at the krogan, his pose not relaxing. Wrex could feel the Sokolov Shotgun on his waist even more now, feeling like he should just finish off the tiny human with a single blast. But he had a mission, and he would complete it. _Think of the credits. _

"I'm not telling you anything." The human said with some bravado, trying desperately to wriggle his way out of the powerful krogan's grasp. In response, he simply tightened his grip on the human, pushing him further into the tough, grey steel wall of the emporium. "Look, you want to live or not? Because my trigger-finger is getting REAL itchy and I'm not in the mood for..."

"Wrex, stand down! Stand down or we'll open fire!" Wrex snapped his look to his left and saw a full squad of C-Sec officers, mostly turian, all wearing Predator L model Medium Armor, save the single asari officer, who was wearing Hoplite model Medium Armor, all with their assault rifles and pistols levelled at him. Only one turian wasn't wearing any armor, his single haptic glass glowing over his right eye. The turian stepped forward, his sniper rifle holstered on his back, "Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian, Citadel Security Services Special Weapons and Tactics, and I'm ordering you to put the human down and stand down now, Wrex!"

"Don't order me around, turian." He gave all the turians intimidating glares, letting them know he didn't like them one bit. It was the turians who had destroyed his people's future, along with their salarian allies. Garrus' pose didn't seem to change, and instead he simply stepped closer to Wrex, moving until there was 2 centimeters between their faces. "Leave...or my sniper rifle will find a new target." Wrex admired the turian's bravery and refusal to back down, but it didn't mean he liked him. Always respect your enemies was something he was taught by the Shaman, it was wise words. "Turian, I'll have my shotgun out faster than you can lower the scope."

"Think you can fire it before my men gun you down?" Garrus stated, reciprocating Wrex's firm glare with his own. It felt like it was being drawn on for hours, until Wrex finally reached a decision and dropped the human, backing off, "Whatever." Wrex prepared to walk off when Garrus' voice came up again, "You're looking for Fist?" Wrex didn't even turn around as he left, speaking to the turian as if he was a pest to be ignored, "I don't need your help, turian. Not from the likes of you. I'll deal with him myself." Garrus' only words were, "Well, he's at Chora's Den if you really want to see him, be careful though, he's not as accomadating as you are." Wrex shook his head at the turians' sarcasm, and refused to thank the turian for the information.

_Aided by a turian, my people's enemy. Still, it helps me. Fist is as good as dead. _With even looking back, Wrex began to increase the pace of his walking until he was just below the Citadel Embassies, and had found a Rapid transit terminal. Accessing the main menu selection, he found what he wanted and found that Chora's Den was just outside the Lower Markets area, and was apparently a gentlemen's strip club. _Hmph. Just the kind of place Fist would hide in, little pyjak coward. Time to pay him a visit. _He selected the Lower Markets area, waiting for the taxi to arrive. When it did, the door immediately flew open and he saw a petrified asari looking up at him, "Des...desti...destination...s-s-sir?" Wrex wanted to chuckle at the horrified look on the asari's face of allowing a krogan into her car, but resisted and sat in the seat next to her.

"Lower Markets, wasn't the message clear?" He stated, waiting for the door of the taxi to close before the asari flew the car out into the skyways of the Presidium, the vehicle disappearing into the depths of the wards. He heard the asari mutter under her breath, "Yeah, but yet again, they didn't say I was transporting a heavily armed krogan either." He decided he'd ignore the comment and the ride was very silent as they flew through the wards. Finally they arrived at the Lower Markets, the door opening to allow the krogan out. "I hope you...enj-enjoyed your tr-trip sir." Before Wrex could even respond as he turned around, the taxi had already sped off down the lane, going at speeds probably not even legal on the Citadel. _Ha._

As he walked out onto the catwalk, he turned left to see the logo of Chora's Den, followed by the image of a young asari in a sexual pose. _Strip club is right. _Without a second thought, Wrex marched straight towards Chora's Den, equipping his shotgun as he did. _I have no plans on making my entrance discreet. Fist dies, same with his servants. Anyone else foolish enough to get in the crossfire can just die for all I care. _And with that, Wrex turned right and marched right for the door.

**{Rewind. Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183 (Translated Khelish Time)_

_Tenth Hour, Fifty-Two Minutes._

_Docking Bay D23, Citadel Docks, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Marine Escort Keenah'Butras vas Rayya._

"Tali, wake up. Wake up my child."

Tali immediately felt her eyes shoot open to see her mother's face, Meru, looking down at her. Her face beamed brightly with a warm smile, her glowing silvery eyes burning brightly with bliss. Her hair was a silvery black color, while her lips were a crimson red color. Unlike Tali, she had no freckles, her face instead just the normal purple color with her skin being incredibly smooth. The woman held out her hand to help Tali up, and Tali took it, standing up. That's when she noticed. Her hand wasn't gloved.

Looking down she saw she was suitless, wearing nothing but a shirt and pants, her bare feet and hands sitting uselessly. She looked up at Meru and smiled, embracing her mother, "Mum!" Together they sat down in what was their quarters, with Tali's crib next to Rael and Meru's bed, the room barely making ten feet in width and length. She was confused by the crib's existence, as Meru had gotten rid of it when she first got her suit at age four, but had decided against asking. They gossiped, talked, laughed and shared sad stories, and then Meru shared tales of her own pilgrimage, saying it was much less eventful compared to Tali's.

"Tali, wake up. Seriously, now!"

"Looks like you're needed Tali." Meru stated, giving her one final smile.

"What? But I thought..." How could she have been so foolish? Her mother had died of a liveship wide infection years ago when she had just been seven. This was a dream, which explained the crib. She looked at her mother and felt tears welling up, "But I don't want you to go...I don't want to leave yet." Meru smiled and kissed Tali on the cheek, embracing her as she did, "I will always watch over you child, even if Rael has neglected you, the ancestors haven't it. I am with them now, and they have promised to protect you." Tali couldn't to sob in her deceased mother's arms, not wanting to wake up from the wonderful dream of seeing her mother again.

"Promise me you'll stay safe, my Tali. I may be gone from life, but I'm not gone forever. I'm still here, in your heart. Remember. Ancestors watch over you, little one, and may you find someone to cherish you as Rael did me. May you bare strong children and be there for them when I couldn't for you." Tali sighed, wrapping her mother in one final hug before murmuring the required words, "_Ikilish'varsi. I'nash'tolo'pah. Ailist'kil'tra'gro. Keelah Se'lai._"

"I love you, Tali. Stay safe." She watched as her mother simpy vanished, and the room evaporated, leaving her in a empty void of blackness, her mother's words still echoing on the wind. Tali sobbed, long and hard, as the voice continued to order her awake.

"Come on suit-rat! Get up!" The voice wasn't Keenah's this time, and belonged to a more gruff one. Her eyes opened slowly in, inviting her to a world of fuzziness. She attempted to open them further, but felt them shoot right open after a huge amount of pain introduced itself to her stomach. Everything came into focus as she saw C-Sec officers all around them, mostly humans, but a few turians and salarians were among them as well. This particular human looked like the main authority of the group, and was the one responsible for hitting her in the chest, now staring down her visor with his assault rifle. Keenah was infront of her, kneeling on the floor with his hands ontop of his head, his eyes looking at her. One of the salarians fit glowing orange omni-cuffs around his wrists, lifting him off the ground and towards the door.

"Get up and kneel you stupid gypsy, stowing away on corporate property. Maybe we'll knock some sense into you with some questions." The human leader said, before motioning two turians towards her. She got up quickly and felt hand-cuffs secure onto her wrists, her hands peeled behind her back like Keenah's were and felt the two officers push her out of the ship. The crew of the ship gave Keenah and herself angry expressions, disgusted that two quarians managed to sneak onto their ship. She heard the mutters, and none of them were pleasant, "Should have them sentenced to the good old whip" "Bloody suit-rats" "Thieves, the lot of 'em!" "Vagabonds, gypsies, Vagrants!" "Useless suited rats" Tali simply looked at the ground in contempt and sadness. _Ancestors watch over me. Yeah, they're doing a terrific job of that. _

She felt herself shoved into the back seat of a police car along with Keenah, the officers not even bothering to untie the cuffs and reactivate them on their laps. It wasn't long before the car had taken off, and even less when they reached the C-Sec Interrogation Center for Shalta. _This might be our only chance to give them the information. The galaxy is at risk, I can't let petty grudges get in the way! _She continued to go along with them as the officers escorted them into the room and sat them down, leaving them alone with an angry looking turian. Only two officers stayed, both holding their weapons; her katana and Keenah's raptor.

Seeing the quarians before him as no threat, the turian interrogator ordered his subordinate officers to untie the cuffs, allowing Tali and Keenah to move their hands. "So, what are two quarians doing on the Citadel?" The turian began, giving Tali a focused glare, ignoring Keenah who was making rude quarian gestures with this hands. Tali reacted quickly, not wanting Keenah to let his anger get out of control, "I'm on my passage into adulthood. My rite of passage called a pilgrimage. Its where we..."

"So why would that require these?" The turian made a movement with his head, and Tali and Keenah's weapons dropped on the table, the turian examining them, "This quarian next to you has alot of training for one on pilgrimage. Disarmed two of my officers before we restrained him," the turian jabbed a talon at Keenah, "So would a little girl and a little boy need such training and weapons on such a significant rite?" the turian asked in a mocking tone, obviously not caring what answer they gave him, they'd been caught sneaking onto corporate property, something that was illegal no matter the reason.

Before Tali could respond, Keenah spoke first, "To protect ourselves from racist _U'lai _like you, _bosh'tet._" Tali snapped a glare at Keenah that told him to shut up and let her handle this. Keenah noticed her glowing eyes focusing on him, and he immediately shut up. The turian and a raised brow at Keenah and looked at him threateningly, "Mind if you tell me what that means, suit-rat?" Tali shook her head and tried to salvage the situation, "I'm sorry for my colleague's reaction sir, he's a little defensive. He's my unionmate." Keenah snapped a look at Tali, and she could tell he was shocked, but she simply gave him a wink, which told him to shut up.

The turian laughed, "Suit-rat lovers. And I thought I'd seen everything repulsive in this galaxy. Look, I don't care if he's your adopted brother, just keep him on a leash like good little pet." Keenah's fists tightening didn't go unnoticed, and many officers around him seemed to tighten their grips on their weapons. The turian interrogator waved a hand for them to stand down, and that they did, but they stayed vigilant.

His gaze fixed back on Tali, obviously seeing her as the more 'mature' of the pair. It was the other way round, as Keenah was at least thirteen years older than her, but she didn't dare mention that. Her hands seemed to enter a nervous dance on her lap, and she tried to panic. Finally, the turian asked her the one question she had been hoping for, "So why did you do it? Sneaking away on a cargo ship?" Tali looked up at him and smiled behind her mask, finally being able to inform someone of authority.

"We went to Illium to try and warn them of a imminent threat to the security of Council Space. They didn't listen and our shuttle was destroyed, so we had no choice but to sneak onboard. Your government needs this information! Its extremely important!" The turian raised a brow and chuckled, "Do tell. I love stories." Tali seemed ignorant about the remark as she continued, "The Geth. We encountered them in the Hades Nexus. We managed to take one out and access its memory, and we found out a turian named Saren and some other woman were in charge of a geth armada preparing to invade Council space. They stated that they had just won a major battle at Eden Prime and were planning to bring back some race called the Reapers. The galaxy is in severe danger, this information must reach the Council!"

The turian looked at her, "So...what's your name?" The turian sounded dead serious, like he was actually listening. Tali smiled at her victory and answered happily, "Tali...Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. This is Keenah'Butras-" She didn't get to finish as she saw the turian's mandible break into a grin.

"Well miss nar Rayya, that is...THE most ridiculous story I've ever heard! Did your mummy teach you that one? Clearly not ready for adulthood, clearly." The turian simply laughed his head off as he smashed his fists against the table repeatedly, the other officers also chuckling at his expense. Tali's eyes widened in shock and...fury. She immediately jumped up and the officers ceased their laughter, raising their rifles. She grabbed the interrogator's shoulders and thrust him into the table, "My mother is dead YOU BOSH'TET SCUMBAG!" The other officers jumped on her and forced her back into the seat, one punching her across the side of the face, knocking her into submission.

The interrogator looked at her, his smile gone and replaced with anger, tiny specs of purple blood dripping behind his mandible as he wiped it, "Quarian animals, your entire species is! We should have destroyed your fleet when we had the chance. We will continue this interrogation, and I've been trying to treat you as humanely as possible," Keenah coughed in the background and she saw he muttered, "Sure..." in a sarcastic tone, "but I'm done playing diplomacy. Now I'll treat you like the filth you are. I'm done playing mister nice guy."

"Wasn't aware you had been to start with." Keenah retorted. Another office simply hit him in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle again, shutting the marine up. Tali sighed as the interrogation dragged on. Six hours later, and the interrogation finally ended, with Tali and Keenah being thrown outside. The interrogator finally said, "I'm letting you go quarians, but only with the exception that you leave the Citadel and never come back. I see you here again and I'll shoot you myself, filthy mobile dung." Keenah managed to recover first and helped Tali up, looking back at the turian as they left, "Hope your spirits are able to remove that piece of metal stuck up your ass, asshole." The turian hissed and snarled and Keenah simply smiled smugly as he helped Tali into the elevator, the door closing behind them as it began its ascent into C-Sec Academy.

"My pilgrimage is a disater. My father will be so disappointed in me." Keenah looked at Tali upon her pessimistic remark, putting a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it for emphasis, "Don't blame yourself Tali, its these bosh'tet security officers. They can laugh at us all they want, but in the end we know the cold-hard facts. Now would be a good time to get this to the Admiralty Board. The information I mean." Tali looked at Keenah and was about to refute his comment but immedately realized that he was right. Only the admiralty would take something about the geth seriously.

"You're right Keenah, and C-Sec will probably gun us down if they see us again, but what about transportation? Our shuttle was destroyed, remember?" Keenah nodded solemnly and entered pensive thought, thinking of multiple ways to get back to the Citadel. Sneaking aboard a ship was definitely not an option this time and hijacking a vessel wasn't considered a capital crime back on the fleet, punishable by treason and exile from the fleet. Tali had just about given up on saving the Council species; what had they ever done for her people except threaten to blow them up or simply shrug them off as annoying parasites. The Admiralty were the only ones smart enough to take a course of action but even then, what if they thought like she did and decided to watch on as the Council burned? Would they then fly in and say, 'I told you so'?

It wasn't long before they had finally arrived at C-Sec Academy and stepped out into the area. The glass door simply shut behind them, two guards standing on each side of the door. Stairs rose up in front of them to another elevator that connected to the wards and presidium, with the room splitting up into three sections; left of them lead to a C-Sec holding room, numerous offices and Traffic Control. Right lead to the Spectre Requisitions office while the area behind them had an elevator directly connected to the Presidium. People moved around in large crowds, most of them C-Sec raw recruits or veteran officers. Keenah rose his finger in a epiphany, "That's it! Tali, come with me! I know where we can get help!" They decided to access the rapid transit system and called a taxi to take them to the Presidium Commons.

The driver wasn't exactly comfortable about having quarians in her vehicle, but didn't seem to mind as long as they payed up. Keenah immediately turned to her and began to explain, "During my pilgrimage I met this salarian named Chorban, he showed me great kindness on my rite of passage. He has access to alot of shuttles, so maybe I can ask him for a favor. I did save his ass from a krogan that tried to kill him after all." Tali laughed at the thought of Keenah actually tackling a krogan, but shook it out of her head when she felt the taxi land.

Handing the driver their credit chits on the way out, they headed directly for the C-Sec Outpost, where Chorban was said to hang out the most, Keenah stating he was trying to find out the 'secrets of the keepers' or something. Tali never really understood the keepers. They were a insectoid species that walked like a insect, had six legs, and bug like eyes. They didn't talk and the only thing they did was to maintain the Citadel. Noone knew where they originated or whether they had somekind of insect hive hidden deep in some unaccessible part of the Citadel, they were enigmatic and very creepy.

The Presidium Commons held up to the main Presidium and was absolutely amazing; cafes and shops of all kinds, accompanied with a bank, were located all over the place and dotted to and from were trees and numerous plants from all kinds of different planets, with a flowing river down below and the majestic skyline of the Presidium ring interior. It was majestic, amazing and most of all, beautiful. Keenah and herself intermingled with the crowd, which seemingly broke apart at the sight of them, not wanting to even touch or look at them; it saddened her but also allowed them to move through without interruption.

Finally they reached the C-Sec outpost, but there was no sign of Chorban. Tali and Keenah had to dodge aside as Avina, the Citadel's VI travel interface and tourist guide, asked them to move aside as a Keeper walked past, seemingly moving to its next mundane repair, construction or piece of work. Nodding their thanks to the VI (Virtual Intelligence), they continued searching for Chorban, but could not find the salarian anywhere.

"I'll try and contact him. I hope he uses the same extranet email address." Keenah said, bringing up his omni-tool and accessing what seemed like a archive of addresses, locations and contacts. "Ah-ha! Got it! Now I just..." A young voice interrupted him, but it definitely wasn't friendly, "Hey! Didn't Lieutenant Gyuras tell you to get lost?" They turned to see an asari officer pointing her rifle at them, "I was there, so don't play stupid with me."

"We were just finding a way off..."

She didn't get to finish as a gunshot went off and everything became a dizzying haze.

**{Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1425 hours._

_Lower Wards, Area Outside Chora's Den, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian._

_Come on Wrex, what are you up too? _Garrus mused as he sighted the gigantic krogan down the sights of his Equalizer model sniper rifle, given to him by his father, the hulking form of the behemoth seemingly looking at Chora's Den with a weary eye. Garrus kept his finger on the trigger, incase the krogan was looking to hurt civilians. If Wrex was after Fist, he'd sure as hell watch his back. He was sick and tired of Palin and Entricas not doing anything, it was time to make a move of his own. No longer would he sit and watch idly as C-Sec screwed over the civilian populace, it was time he made a difference. _Just like you wanted father._

He watched as the krogan pulled out his shotgun, the weapon looking lengthy and extremely dangerous, and watched as he stormed towards Chora's Den, weapon raised. _Yeah, he's definitely about to make a mess. _He strongly considered calling in reinforcements, but remembered they'd probably kill Wrex and save Fist's ass. _Not this time. This scumbag dies, now. _Garrus then collapsed his rifle into a more compact form and jumped off his vantage point, attempting to find a area in which he could snipe into the club. He tried and tried, but he could never find the right spot in which he could assist the krogan killing machine, but time was running out, and he wanted to be the one that put the bullet straight through Fist's smug face.

Just when he thought his efforts were redundant and was about to charge in with his assault rifle, his comm crackled to life and he heard Bailey's voice come through it, "Garrus? I know your there." Garrus rolled his eyes and keyed his comm, "You have reached the telephone of Garrus Vakarian, please leave a message." He was chuckling inside until he heard Bailey's response, "Very funny Garrus, but comms don't have answering machines." Garrus rolled his eyes at the human's statement of the obvious and responded dutifully, "You're such a killjoy. So, what does Captain Criminal Appeaser want now?" Bailey knew he meant Entricas, but his response was completely unexpected, "Nothing. I came to tell you that I might have found something for your case against Saren."

"I'm listening, Bailey. Don't keep me hanging." Garrus felt awkward after saying the human idiom, but after being around Bailey it stuck. He waited for the human's response, and it came hurriedly, "You know those two quarians? Yeah well they just arrived on the Citadel, stowed away on some cargo ship, interrogated for six hours then told to leave. But they didn't, and last I heard one of our officer's found them at the Presidium Commons. You want your lead? You just found it." Garrus was amazed by Bailey's competence and ability to get information fast, but yet again, he was probably one of the officer's to have collected it in the first place.

"Thanks Bailey, I owe you for this. I'll be right there." Garrus stated, letting the sniper rifle fall and magnetically connect to his back.

"Damn right you do, Batman. Bailey out." Garrus chuckled at the nickname given to him by his fellow officers due to his roguish way of doing his job, and disconnected the comm link turning to the nearest rapid transit terminal and selecting the Presidium Commons, waiting for the taxi to arrive before stepping into it and waiting to arrive. The Shalta Wards sped past as his taxi closed in on the Commons, readying his datapad and trying to get as much information he could scrounge up on these two quarians.

From what the interrogation managed to acquire, their names were Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Keenah'Butras vas Rayya, the former being a female on some kind of rite of passage, while the latter was her boyfriend or something, and had been assigned to protect her. The girl claimed to have evidence that invoked Saren has a traitor to the Council and that he had a large geth army under his command. It seemed alittle farfetched, but Garrus wasn't the kind to ignore farfetched claims, he was the kind to actually investigate them. _Saren needs to be stopped, and only the Council can do that by revoking his Spectre status. _

"Sir, we're arriving at the Commons." The driver stated, setting the car to autopilot so as to look at Garrus. He nodded his thanks, "Park next to the outpost." The driver nodded as she deactivated the autopilot and brought the car down towards the outpost. Upon feeling the car land, he hit the door and slid it open, stepping out onto the tiles of the Presidium and closing the door and watching it take off, disappearing behind one of the many buildings, the synthetic sun shining on its plating. Garrus was about to turn and head up the stairs when he noticed a sudden fact; it was disturbingly quiet. Turning around, he noticed that there was noone around. _How the hell did I not notice this before?_

Looking up he looked up at the news screens and saw that they weren't transmitting datafeeds but said the simple words 'Evacuation In Progress' streaming across the screen. He equipped his rifle and prepared to move up, but a voice called out to him, "Garrus!" He turned to see Constable Samuel Ghost running up to him, the man being known for his racism towards quarians and krogan, and for some odd reason, towards turians as well. He looked at the source of the shout, seeing the human running up to him, "I heard you were arriving, sir."

"What the hell is going on here, Constable? Evacuation in progress? Are we under mercenary attack? If so we should have SWAT moving in..." He stopped suddenly when he saw Sam's shake of his head, nodding up the stairs directly at the outpost, "Gunman. Turian. Two quarians were talking with one of our officers when the gunman opened fire. You'd better take a look for yourself." Garrus nodded and let Sam lead him up the stairs, to which they found a gruesome sight. He saw a dead asari C-Sec officer with her rifle under her collapsed form, blue blood streaming from her corpse in a bloody pool. A trail of red blood lead away from the scene, heading straight for the elevator, followed by a even thicker pool of blood, the origin being a gruesome, rotting pile of destroyed flesh. Garrus moved up and kneeled next to the dead officer, shaking his head.

"Bullet wound straight through the forehead, she didn't have her kinetic barriers up. The blood trail leads towards the elevator, which means the sniper must have been over behind Aegohr Munitions," he said, pointing towards the store just down the stairs, "The evident low blood flow in one trail and the heavier amount in the other means both survived and are on the move, but one of them is heavily wounded, and judging by the scattered gunshells, I'd say they're being pursued."

"By who sir? And why are these quarians so important? SWAT is inbound but if that gunman isn't just some madman and is an actual assassin, don't you think we should call in proper Special Tasks Group operatives? I don't think SWAT has the resources to hunt down an assassin, even if he's just a mercenary. Garrus pondered this. STG or Special Tasks Group were the Salarian Union's Special Operations/Black Ops Division of the military, and they had quite alot of operatives on the Citadel. They were technically the salarian version of what human's called the 'Central Intelligence Agency' or CIA back on Earth, and were highly trained in espionage, counter-assassination, assassination and dealing discreetly with military threats.

_Is it too coincidental that both quarians came under attack JUST when they attempt to provide the information? Whoever it was, they were hired to kill them to stop them from talking. Which means Saren is on to them, that's providing he's a traitor or not. _He turned to Sam, "Tell the SWAT units to send in a single squad to secure the area, set up a perimeter and secure any fatalities. I'm going to follow the trail and rescue those quarians." Sam immediately nodded, keying his omni-tool to make the nessacary communications while Garrus began following the blood trail. It wasn't long before he found where it ended, but it wasn't at the elevator, but instead over the railing and down below. He gulped as he realized where they were heading.

_The Garbage Disposal Plant. That place is full of machinery that could easily kill them if they're not careful. _Then he smiled at his realization. _But they know that, they're attempting to either get their pursuer to back off or lure him to his death. Clever. _Due to the fact that there were no hospitals in the immediate vicinity, as Huerta Memorial wasn't yet complete, he knew the quarians could only head for one place. _Dr. Michel. _Without further thought, he decided not to risk the shuttles and began proceeding on foot Palin's office. He had to know about the quarians, and he had to know now.

_Or those quarians are as good as dead._

**{Loading...Rewind}**

_August 19, 2176_

_Time Stamped Unknown, Communications Down._

_Somewhere near the City Center, Outside Greek Markets, Valhalla City, Elysium._

_First Lieutenant Marcus Lee Shepard._

"Roshia, rear flank! Batarians are making a push! Damn it, Nathan, see what you can do about that goddamn gunship! Joseph, Zach, Thomas, follow me! We'll hold the forward position! Don't let a single enemy soldier behind us or we're finished!" He heard a rocking cacophony of affirmatives before he nodded to the trio following just behind him, his tech specialist, Joseph, preparing an overlord while his sniper, Thomas, attempted to locate a vantage point for him to take down the batarian troops.

Executing a forward roll, Marcus was able to reach cover just as the staccato beat of weapons fire erupted, gunshots whizzing over his head, two hitting home on his kinetic barriers as he readied his Avenger assault rifle, equipping incendiary rounds. Over the sound of the weapons fire he could hear Joseph activate his overload and that was followed by the pounding sound of a sniper rifle going off, soon followed in itself by the sound of ripping flesh.

Without waiting, Marcus peered up and opened up with his rifle, hitting a closing batarian square in the chest, his scream of pain showing up as blood oozed out of the wound and he fell to the ground, wreathing in pain. Finishing off the merc, he located a second soldier attempting to rush Joseph but before he could, he was gunned down from the combined fire of his avenger, and Joseph's Edge pistol. _Damn mercs, bring a whole bloody army of 10,000, and none of them are able-bodied enough to bring kinetic barriers, fucking idiots. This is more like World War II style warfare then anything else, except we have the cutting-edge technology._

He immediately ducked as he felt the vibration of a rocket impacting the rubble near by, sending up dust that choked the air. He prepped a smoke screen and threw it, preparing a flanking maneveur. He heard Roshia's voice over the comm, "Sir! Please help me! I've got a battalion sized enemy force converging on my six and my position's being turned into swiss cheese! Can't hold, I repeat, can't hold! How copy?" Marcus cursed under his breath as he looked at the regiment sized batarian group hammering them, but they were a four-man squad, Roshia was a lone wolf. The following explosion indicated Nathan had disposed of the gunship. Good.

"Roger that Roshia, just hold on! I'm coming! Nathan, get your ass to Roshia now! She's getting pelted! I'm going to try round the buildings and flank the battalion from behind. Risky, but were out of options." He looked at the trio now left to defend the position, and it was clear they weren't going to hold, "Thomas! You're in command! If enemy resistance gets too hot I want you to fall back into the buildings! And contact Sarann, I want a status update on the civilian evac!" Thomas simply nodded before returning to his sniping spree, allowing Marcus to rush into the buildings, not feeling any bullets hitting him, which meant the trio must have the batarian's full attention. Good.

The city was a warzone, and it had a look to fit. The once blue and white colored buildings for human architecture were now nothing but rubble, the scene like something out of a movie about World War II. The batarians had hit hard and swifty, initiating an orbital bombardment, which was only the harbinger for their ground force, which initated a blitzkrieg across the city, the bombardment serving to weaken the defenses sufficiently enough for the batarians to rush in uncontested. Now only his platoon was still resisting; all others had either fallen back, evacuated, or were dead.

Numerous cars lay on the streets with their cockpits shattered and destroyed, while the dead bodies of alliance soldiers, batarian mercenaries and the occassional civvie lay all over the place, decaying from the wounds received, the smell becoming so putrid that they had to turn off the olfactory filters in their helmets. He rushed into one of the nearby greek buildings, trying his best to ignore the sight of mangled and shredded bodies of greek employees blown to pieces by the blast of a nearby orbital round. He had been talking with Roshia when the attack happened, the two of them being close friends.

Forcing the nearby door to open, as the main console had been blown to smithereens, he immediately leapt out into the empty alleyway, pieces of trash littered the area, and he smiled as he saw a dog bark at him, its tail not wagging, meaning it was scared. He raised his rifle and saw varren charge through the street, their batarian owners rushing alongside them towards Roshia's position. _War Beasts. _He motioned for the dog to sit, before moving up and past the collapsed section of roof on a makeshift hut, making sure not to catch the attention of the passing batarians.

Then heard Nathan's voice crackle through his comms, "Yeah, I get it Roshy! Varren! I'll gun down the vermin, you take out those snipers. Mark, don't know where the hell you are, but we could really use some assistance right about now. Not to mention Sarann sounds like he's got a stick up his ass." Marcus keyed his comm, "Copy that, relay Sarann through to me. Oh and Nathan, remember this, Sarann ALWAYS has a stick up his ass. What the hell do you think the business with 'creeds' was?"

"Point. Just hurry your old ass up, Shepard. We ain't got all week." Seeing the batarians had moved on, he ran across the street and into the frontyard of an abandoned church, making sure not to attract any attention as Sarann boomed through his comm, "Let's just say Mark that you owe me a year's worth worth of Ice Cream when this is over. I'm sweating like a pig, and these civilians are so jumpy its like they expect satan to leap out and start eating them." Marcus shook his head at Sarann's antics. They would have been funny, had they not been dealing with a planetside evacuation.

"Quit the shit Sarann and give me a status update. Now. And you can make it half a year's worth." He rushed out from behind his cover and charged straight towards Roshia and Nathan's position, who having immediate trouble with charging Varren.

"Whoa mate, quit your bitching. Lets just say that three-quarters of the populace is evacuated, but if Luke Skywalker doesn't magically appear and pull a indestructible fleet out of his ass we're going nowhere." Marcus nodded as he grabbed a nearby batarian's head and smashed it into the concrete, blood splattering all over the place before joining Roshia, who had tears going down her cheek and looked like she was having a mental breakdown. _Damn it. _"Look Sarann, now's not the time, I just need you to do what you can until reinforcements arrive. I don't care if you have to shoot rainbows out of your mouth, just do something! Shepard out." He then looked at Roshia and turned her to face him.

"I can't do this! I'm...I didn't sign up for this! I didn't sign up for any of this! I didn't think I'd be...oh god, oh god!" Marcus tried his best to calm the woman down, but she just seemed to get more hysterical. She was new, and she had never been prepared for this. A batarian voice called out, "Surrender humans!" Swelling in anger, Marcus swam in biotics as he leapt up, "_Shakli b'tahat!_" Marcus spat in hebrew as he launched a shockwave of pure biotic energy towards the hostiles, sending at least four of them flying. He attempted to move back behind cover but when he did, he saw Roshia missing behind him. He heard an explosion and turned to see Roshia, who had been trying to fall back, but got hit by a rocket and sent flying into the air.

"No! You _Chel'at ha'min ha'enoshi!_" He turned back to the batarians, still cursing in his native language, spouting curses at his enemies as everything went blurry and he heard a familiar voice, one that filled him with dread.

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING.**

_June 16, 2183_

_1352 hours._

_Medical Bay, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL Inbound for the Citadel._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Medical Chief Karin Chakwas._

His eyes immediately shot open. He saw the clear, steely grey ceiling of the medical bay, as he woke up, his body not yet used to the sudden lighting. "Doctor! Doctor Chakwas! I think he's waking up!" He recognized the voice and remembered that it belonged to Ashley. _Dr. Chakwas? So I'm not on Eden Prime. That, or the doc left the ship, no, she wouldn't do that. She's not a battlefield medic. _He moved up and sat on the edge of the bed, seeing that both Ashley and Doctor Chakwas were looking at him worriedly.

"Commander, you had us worried there for a moment. How are you feeling? Dizziness? Stomach pains? Migraines from your implants?" Marcus shook his head at each and every suggestion and finally spoke, "Really, doc. I'm fine." Chakwas didn't seem convinced and continued to examine Shepard for a while longer until he finally spoke up, breaking the awkward silence, "How long was I out?"

"You might find this surprising, but you've been out for six days, we were about to count this as your seventh, but you woke up so...yeah." Chakwas stated, smiling at Marcus' shocked expression. _Shit. Six days? That's crazy! But...what about the beacon? And Saren? The Geth? The colony! _As if reading his thoughts, Ashley spoke up first, "The beacon knocked you out cold, the Lieutenant and I brought you back up to the ship." Marcus nodded, "Thanks Williams, you did good down there." He couldn't help but notice the smile that curved Ashley's lips at his compliment. Chakwas' voice once again took the stage.

"The beacon exploded shortly after you lost consciousness, a system overload perhaps, we don't know, unforuneately we'll never know what set it off in the first place." Ashley lost her smile as she looked at the ground solemnly, "Its all my fault, I got too close and you had to push me out of the way."

Marcus shook his head, "You had no idea what could have happened, it wasn't your fault." Ashley nodded, seeming to regain some of her vigor as she stiffened at the sound of the door opening. Looking back he saw Anderson smile at him as he stopped next to Ashley. "Commander, how are you feeling?" he asked, his voice laced with concern. Marcus held up his hands to reassure the man, "I'm fine sir." Chakwas still wasn't convinced.

"Fine? I noticed a increase in your heartbeat, and a increase in rapid eye movement. Signs typically assiociated with intense REM sleep." Marcus sighed as he nodded, recollecting the events of his dream, "I was back on Elysium, and watched as Roshia died. Then...this voice, it keeps saying 'we are the end of everything.' It booms with this...horrible voice that makes you shiver. Its like your worst nightmares coming up and striking you, its scary. But there was this vision I got from the beacon. I saw...I'm not sure what I saw...death? destruction? Nothing's really clear."

Anderson looked at Chakwas and Ashley, "I need to talk to the Commander...in private." Ashley simply responded with a nod and crisp salute, before marching out of the room, quickly followed by the kind doctor, the door sliding shut behind both of them. Anderson then turned back to Marcus, "We'll be arriving at the Citadel soon." Marcus widened his eyes at that. The Citadel. Rumors held that it was the most majestic, and by the far the largest, space station in existence, serving as the capital of Council space. The space even dwarfed Jump Zero, the Alliance's largest space station. He'd never seen it before, and to be going to visit? It was the chance of a lifetime.

"The Citadel sir? Why there? What happened on Eden Prime?" He asked the captain, noticing his commanding officer stiffen after the questions. He let a sigh escape his parched lips.

"Eden Prime was a disaster, Commander. Jenkins and Nihlus ended up dead, the beacon was destroyed, they're large civilian fatalities to account for and the geth escaped with the enemy flagship which has disappeared right off the grid. The Council has lost one of their spectres, and they demand to know why. We both know who to blame for this. Saren, that other turian. Damn it, I should have known it was him from the moment I met him."

Marcus snapped a look at the veteran, "You've met him before, captain?"

"Yes, it was during this mission, we were working together. I was working to become a Spectre once, humanity's first, but then Saren screwed the mission so badly and blamed it on me, that the Council withdrew my candidacy. Saren killed thousands of innocents and blamed it on me. I've hated that scaly bastard ever since, but now he's back, and he hates humans. Something about his brother dying to us just after the First Contact War."

"Just how dangerous is Saren sir?" Marcus asked, wondering what enemy they could be facing.

"I know Saren. His reputation, his politics. He won't stop until his wiped humanity from the face of the galaxy. He thinks us a blight on the galactic community. This attack was an act of war, and even now the Alliance is mobilizing for direct military action! And if Saren's got an army of geth under his command...he was dangerous enough on his own. With them he could possibly wage war on the entire Council if even the chance but if we can prove he's a traitor, not only will the Council revoke his spectre status..."

"They'll unite the Council races to fight with the Alliance and push the geth back to the Perseus and kill Saren!" Marcus exclaimed, seeing the plan that Anderson had formed. The captain confirmed his thoughts with a smile, "Exactly. But first we have to present this to the Council. Now you mentioned some kind of vision? A vision of what exactly?"

Marcus focused on the horrible images now stuck in his mind, the pictures so frightening and graphic it made him want to just shake himself out of them, "I see...geth. Slaughtering people. Butchering them. And then..."

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING.**

"What the hell are you!" he shouted, shaking himself of the images. Anderson raised a brow at him, showing a gesture of concern, "Commander, are you okay? Who are you talking about?" The image of the gigantic squid ship appeared in Marcus' mind, surprising him with the amount of graphic detail, "I have no idea Anderson, but its something horrible. I've never seen anything like it, but I keep getting this odd feeling that the geth and Saren are the least of our problems. Like there is something worser at work."

"Like what? What could be worse than an armada of geth lead by a rogue turian spectre?" Anderson asked, trying to sound comical, but failing as the concern flooded out into his voice. Marcus simply shrugged.

"It's probably nothing. Maybe its Saren, I don't know. I'm ready for duty if I'm allowed back." Marcus stated, trying to change the subject from his odd visions. For now they were hidden away, but the machine's words still echoed in his mind, repeated in the same synthetic, deep undertone. Over and over again. Anderson simply nodded.

"As I said, we should be arriving at the Citadel soon. Come on, we should get to the cockpit." Marcus simply nodded, jumping off the bed and taking a quick stretch, hearing each and every one of his muscles pop. Once done, he followed Anderson out of the medbay and past the mess hall, in which Ashley joined them. "Commander, I just heard about Jenkins down on Eden Prime. I'm so sorry, I hadn't realized what happened." Marcus tilted his head downwards at the memory of Jenkins' gaze frozen in his mind, and then shook it away as he felt the vision returning, "Yeah. I made a bad call and I ended up paying for it. I didn't count on the enemy having drones, and that's what got him killed." He blamed himself, just like he had blamed himself for Roshia's death on Elysium. And both of them had been raw rookies, Roshia more so as she had been only a private second class.

"I feel bad, replacing him. I don't belong here. I should probably just ask for reassignment or somethin," Ashley began, but Marcus immediately cut her off, "I will have none of that Williams, you earned your place on this team by your skill, not by a soldier's death. Jenkins will be remembered among this crew as doing his duty to the end, while you will continue his memory by fighting in his name. Understood?" Ashley looked at him with a warm smile as they climbed up the leftward stairs, looking back ahead as she answered.

"Hell yeah, sir." She answered cheerily, and the rest of the walk to the cockpit was uneventful until Joker decided he'd make a few wise crack jokes, "Great. Now not only do we have genocidal flashlight heads out to kill us all with some kind of gigantic sperm ship, not to mention a turian with a pole up his ass about us humans, but now Mister Charlie Chaplain and Pole Up His Ass The Second are dead. That spells fantastic all over it." Joker finished with his voice dripping of sarcasm. Marcus was about to retaliate verbally, but Ashley beat him to it.

"You think this is some kind of fucking joke? That people are dead and your sitting here, joking around about it?" She said angrily, annoyed by the pilot's attitude.

"Hey, do you think they called me Joker because I wear facepaint and is hunted down by a man in a bat costume? No, they call me Joker because I joke around." He said, less sarcastically and more seriously. Kaidan immediately broke in from his seating next to Joker, "That's actually true. His drill instructor nicknamed him Joker out of the irony in the fact that he never smiled, at all, during classes and worked really hard, so the nickname was born." Marcus chuckled at the story, turning to look at the pilot, Anderson simply grinning nearby. Even Ashley managed to force a grin.

"What? I didn't make this position by making children laugh you know, I ain't some clown you find from the parade down street. If we're giving out nicknames, then maybe I should call the Commander 'Slayer', Ashley 'Doom Gloom' and Kaidan 'Lightbulb'. Oh, and the Captain gets to be called 'Pole Up His Ass The Third.'" Everyone laughed, even Anderson, "Be careful Joker, you only get certain privledges with me. Now bring us into dock. Shepard, take Ashley and Kaidan and get suited up." Marcus simply raised an eyebrow, "You want us to wear armor to a Council meeting? You expect them to whip out pistols and shoot us?"

"No, but this place is the Citadel. It looks all calm and peaceful on the outside, but the crime rate in this place is HIGH. Better to have it and not need it..." Anderson stated.

"...then need it and not have it." Marcus finished, motioning for Ashley and Kaidan to follow him back to the armoury to refit their armor. It had taken only twenty minutes, and they were soon back at the bridge, ready to leave. They were just in time to watch the Normandy dock with the Citadel when they arrived.

"Welcome to the Citadel, please enjoy your stay" said another voice through the comm before disconnecting. Joker responded, "Roger that Citadel Control, Normandy out." Without further thought, Anderson, himself and his squad stepped into the decontamination unit in the airlock, the annoying VI voice stating it was decontaminating the chamber.

"The Commanding Officer is ashore. XO Shepard has the deck." The VI finished, voice vanishing. Marcus raised a brow, which got a chuckle from the captain, "Pressly has the deck, he knows that, I'll get that VI fixed." Marcus simply shrugged it off and motioned for his squad to follow him and Anderson into a nearby elevator, the glass door closing behind them as it began to descend. Corny music began playing over the comm, followed by numerous news reports. Most of them circulated the latest geth attack on Eden Prime, which appeared to be a headline story.

After a painfully long time, they finally arrived in a unknown sector of the Citadel, which had stairs rising up to another elevator, a three way room and multiple armed guards and civilians walking around, "Welcome to C-Sec Academy, Enjoy your stay." The VI directory stated, and Marcus realized he must have been at the police cadets academy. Anderson didn't even stop for the sights as he approached a glowing terminal, selecting a button that said, 'Citadel Embassies: Presidium.' He simply smiled at them as the taxi arrived, picking them up and taking them directly to Anderson's assigned destination.

The embassies bussled with activity, hanar, volus, asari, turians, salarians and humans to and from places around the area, visiting either their own embassies or others. Walking up the stairs and down a long corridor, it wasn't long before they entered the human embassy, a angry looking human waiting for them.

"Captain Anderson, I just had a meeting with the Council. They were...less than happy with your accusations, so you'd better hope the evidence you have is accurate, if you have any." Anderson simply rolled his eyes at the politician while Marcus eyed him up and down. He wore a simple light orange jumper, with jeans and boots, while his face was something else. His hair was grey with age, while his face was rugged like a man made of politics, his jawline firm. Anderson motioned towards the man.

"Ambassador Donnel Udina, he's the representitive for humanity...unfortunately, he's the best politican, so you'll have to excuse his..." he shot Udina an angry glare, "attitude." The man named Udina seemed to simply roll his own eyes as he looked at Shepard, doing examination of his own. Marcus barely knew the man, and he didn't like him already. He looked like one of those politicians with a hidden agenda that will eventually come back to bite you in the ass, and is one who uses people to get what he wants. The man seemed like a slimy asshole, but Marcus wasn't about to argue with humanity's chosen ambassador. Instead, he tried to change the subject back to current events.

"You said the Council is waiting for us? Then what are we waiting for? Joker to jump in with sprinklers and shout, 'I told you so?'" He stated, trying to put some humor into the conversation. Udina was obviously a humorless prick as well, as he simply rolled his eyes in response, "Yes, although your actions on Eden Prime seem to have put a bad image on humanity as a whole. We had high hopes for you commander, but with Nihlus dead you'll never make the Spectres, especially after letting the beacon get destroyed." He stated coldly, and Marcus felt so pissed. _Did he make it sound like it was my fault that Nihlus is dead and is precious beacon exploded? What did he want me to do, mystically gain teleportation powers? Fucking politicians, why people waste their time with these slimy pieces of... _his musing was interrupted by Anderson, who stepped to his defense.

"That wasn't Shepard's fault, that was Saren's!" Marcus nodded at Anderson and turned to Udina, who remained as stuck up as possible. _First I dislike the guy, then I hate him, now I want to shoot him. _Udina shook his head in a disappointed manner before speaking, "Then let's hope the C-Sec investigation turns up any new information to support our accusations. Otherwise the Council might use this to keep you out of the Spectres," Udina said, looking directly at Marcus, "Come Anderson, we must go to the Council Chambers. Shepard, meet us there." Without even acknowledging Marcus, Udina spun on his heel and left, followed by Anderson who simply rolled his eyes again and nodded at Marcus as he followed Udina out, door closing behind them.

"Charming man." Kaidan muttered in a sarcastic man, his arms crossed.

"And that's why I hate politicians." Ashley stated firmly, seemingly agreeing with Kaidan's sarcastic statement and Marcus' irritated look, showing one of her own.

"Come on, we better do as Whiny wants or he'll probably threaten to have us beaten to death by a credit chit or something." Marcus said humorously, causing Kaidan to lightly chuckle and Ashley to form quite a large smile on her face as Marcus motioned them to follow him out of the embassy.

_June 16, 2183_

_1431 hours._

_Presidium, Council Chambers, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Ambassador Donnel Udina, Captain David Edward Anderson._

The Council Chambers certainly didn't stob radiating the beauty of the Presidium, that was guaranteed. The elevator entrance was preserved perfectly, with a long corridor leading up to a circular area with a large fountain in the middle. The stairs then lead up into the main part of the chamber, a large grassy area with trees sitting in the middle, flanked by two large buildings serving as the Council's sleeping chambers. Members of multiple species including a few enigmatic keepers walked past, with a unusual salarian kneeling next to one scanning it with his omni-tool. If he had to pick the most unusual species in the galaxy, it was salarians.

Their entire species had been nicknamed 'the race of steven hawkings' and they were right to say so; salarians were naturally born with the ability to absorb knowledge as if it was air. They had two horns on the top of their head, while their body was that of an amphibian; their eyes closing upwards, not downwards like humans and many other species, and their body scaly, with three digits on hands and feet. They were experts at espionage, but their ability to wage brutal war is not well-known and salarian shock troopers, commandos and even soldiers are rarely seen, or heard of. Salarians also had an incredibly short lifespan, most only living to forty, the lucky ones reaching fifty. Salarian females also seemed to stay in salarian space, which explained why males were so common, and females so rare. It was also heard that salarians...like krogan...lay eggs instead of fertilization.

A final pair of the stairs were found at the end of the chamber, leading up to the 'Council Podium' where the three councilors, once having been four, as rumors had it the quarians once had a spot but were removed along with their embassy after the Morning War, would talk to the one's granted an audience with them, which was granted only to senior officials and high-ranking political or military personnel. _Politics. Hmph. _Stepping past the fountain, Marcus moved up the stairs, unspokenly followed by Ashley and Kaidan. It wasn't long before they found two turians at the top of the stairs, facing each other, arguing.

"I need more time to gather my information! The Council needs it! Galactic lives are at risk, I'm telling you! Give me more time, stall them!" A turian with a blue glass on his right eye and blue C-Sec agent model armor said, yelling irritatedly at the turian in front of him, who had black and white facepaint, and C-Sec uniform, the word 'Executor' on his chest. The turian reciprocated the rage, not even flinching from the other turian's verbal assault.

"Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous, your investigation is over Garrus." The executor simply waved off the turian named Garrus as he brushed past Marcus and sidestepped past Kaidan to head for the elevator, Garrus shooting him a glare and growling, cursing in a language he couldn't understand or that his translators didn't pick up. Moving up to Garrus, he spoke.

"There are problem going on?" He asked the turian, Garrus' look snapping towards him. He saw that the turian had blue facepaint of somekind, running along his mandibles. The turian simply chuckled half heartedly, "Problem? Yeah, that asshole named Palin decided to wave me off and put the fate of the galaxy in the hands of self-righteous politicians. So yes, we've got a problem." Marcus noticed out of the corner of his eye, Ashley shifting into a irritated stance. She obviously didn't like turians. _Why? _The turian then chuckled again.

"But what right does a nameless turian have to place such a burden on you? Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian, Citadel Security Services, I was the one put in charge in the investigation into your accusation against Saren." Marcus nodded, seeing that at least SOMEONE was about to take him seriously. Udina simply seemed to not give a crap, as if he'd stumbled in on a beach party he was throwing.

"Well Garrus, I find it unusual you'd want to bring Saren down. He's turian and a good spectre at that." Marcus stated, noticing Garrus' shift in stance to one of caution. Ashley spoke up, venom in her voice he never expected from her, "Yeah, he's a turian scumbag just like you, so why would you want to hunt him down, dino?" Then Marcus realized it, he didn't like Ashley's response, but he realized she hated turians. Dino was a nickname given to the turians during the First Contact War. But Ashley was far too young to have been there.

"Williams, stand down! He's only trying to help!" Kaidan got in first, seemingly shouting her down. Ashley's irritated demeanour didn't change, but she at least stood down, not another word of racism eminating from her mouth. Garrus didn't even acknowledge Ashley's racist comment; in fact, he didn't even acknowledge her, simply continuing to talk with Marcus.

"I've never liked Saren from the start. Something about him...rubs me the wrong way. He just...doesn't seem right. I've been looking for an excuse to investigate what I think may be his corruption, and now I had the chance and screwed it up. Everywhere I go there's enough red tape to sink a cruiser, damn C-Sec regs. But I'm not done yet, I've still got one lead to follow and I'm not letting them die. You should go...?"

"Shepard. Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy." Garrus widened his eyes and smiled a turian grin, "The Commander Shepard, well an honor to meet you. I shouldn't stall you from the meeting with the Council, besides, I have that lead to follow." Without a second glance, Garrus sprinted past them, heading straight for the elevator in a flash like he desperately needed to pee. Marcus simply shrugged it off and headed towards Anderson, who stood at the top of the stairs. Garrus' words echoed in his mind. _I've still got one lead to follow and I'm not letting them die. _One lead? Them? He shook the thoughts from his head. _If this meeting goes well we won't need whoever 'them' are._

"Come on, the meeting's already started. I thought you'd at least come in some nice clothes." Anderson quipped, heading up the stairs, followed by Marcus and his peers. He chuckled, "I thought I'd screw the diplomatic approach and stick to showing off my flashy weapons. Let them know who fights their wars." Anderson nodded his head in agreement, lightly chuckling as he did. It wasn't long before they'd reached the end of the audience's podium, with the three councilors standing before them; Councilor Sparatus, the turian councilor. Councilor Tevos, the asari councilor. Councilor Valern, the salarian councilor. Finally, one a large hologram pedestal stood the 40 feet tall hologram of Saren, his beady eyes looking down on Marcus with malice, but turned to pure venom at the sight of Anderson. _Yeah, definitely have a past._

The meeting was already in full swing, the council not even acknowleding his presence as Tevos' voice rang out, "The geth attack is a matter of some concern. But there is nothing to to indicate Saren was involved in anyway." Sparatus' voice rose up after hers, his being less calm and tranquil, and more gruff and intimidating, "The investigation by Citadel security turned no evidence to support your charge of treason." Udina wasn't giving up though, even when under fire from three councilors who seemed sure of themselves; that bit of Udina is the only bit Marcus liked about him.

"An eyewitness saw him kill Nihlus in cold-blood!" Udina shouted, his voice full of anger.

"The account of a single traumatized dockworker is hardly compelling proof," Valern began, "Besides, the report said he had stolen Alliance munitions, how do we know he didn't kill Nihlus and blame it on Saren?"

Marcus cursed, but he knew Valern had a point. Even he hadn't seen Saren kill Nihlus, but he also didn't believe the dockworker was up to killing the turian, let alone a spectre. Saren's voice moved on, his voice sounding turian but also partially synthetic.

"I resent these accusations. Nihlus was a fellow spectre, and a friend." He said, his voice calm and arms crossed. It was Anderson who stood up and spoke, his voice accusing and full of hatred.

"That just let you catch him off guard!" He shouted, "Just like you did to me back on Camala!" Saren and Anderson seemed to have a death stare stand off, both looking infuriated to see each other, both looking like ripping at each other's throats. Finally, Saren broke the silence, his demeanour as calm and unwavering as ever, "Captain Anderson. You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me."

"And I guess I just decided I wanted to kill my girlfriend and hundreds of innocent workers, you lying scumbag!" Anderson shouted, his voice full of hate and loathing, but instead of continuing, he simply stormed out of the meeting, the Councilor's looks following him until he was gone, before returning to look at Marcus and Udina. Saren had a smug grin that shone of deceipt. _Asshole thinks he's won. _Saren's look suddenly turned to Marcus, his gaze not full of the venom he showed Anderson, but still shining with the hatred he had for humanity.

"And this must be his protege, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed." Marcus fumed, absolutely pissed off by this prick's snide comments. _He's got traitor written all over him. _It was instead Ashley who retorted, "I'm sure the turian would have done the same, had the mission been his." Both Saren and Sparatus shot looks of irritation at the gunnery chief, both of them gaining a smug smile from the soldier in return. Saren rolled his eyes, "Racism based on ignorance. But what can you expect, from a human?"

Tevos and Valern entered pensive thought, while Sparatus nodded his head in agreement. It was obvious the councilor wasn't too fond of humans either. He finally stood up to speak, "Saren dispises humanity? What the hell do you think this is all about? He wants us wiped from the galactic map and that's why he attacked Eden Prime!" His voice echoed through the chambers, going on for quite awhile before stopping, the Councilors unflinching at his accusation, Saren even more so, looking as smug as ever.

"Your species needs to learn its place, Shepard. You're not ready to join the Council, you're not even ready to join the Spectres!" This time everyone was shocked, even the councilors. Tevos was obviously having none of it, as she spoke up immediately, "Shepard's admission into the spectre's is not the purpose of this meeting." He smiled at Tevos, finding that he had finally found a councilor he liked. She was just stating facts of course, didn't mean he didn't secretly thank her a million times for stepping in and shutting the spectre's smug mouth.

"This meeting has no purpose! The humans are wasting your time Councilor, and mine." The other councilors nodded, seemingly looking at Marcus in evaluation, Sparatus finally speaking up. "I agree, it is obvious no evidence can be given to prove Saren's guilt. As a result I think we should draw the final verdict and get this over with. I've got more imporant things to tend to, like my mate." Nodding, the other councilors drew their omni-tools and placed their verdict, none of them hesitating in their decisions.

Marcus scowled as Tevos spoke up, reading the verdict off her omni-tool, "Due to the tremendous verdict presented, we find no sufficient evidence to indicate Saren's treachery. Saren is exonerated." The omni-tools finally winked out of existence, the Councilors leaving in single file, not even waiting for them to say anything else. Saren let out a final remark before his hologram vanished.

"I'm glad to see justice was served."

Marcus simply left, his body radiating with irritation, Ashley and Kaidan following him without question. Udina simply stood there, looking defeated and destroyed, before finally following them, looking just as irritated as he did. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, they found Anderson leaning against a wall and looked at them as they approached.

"I'll guess it didn't go well." He asked dryly. Marcus rolled his eyes, "What can you expect from politicians? We've got nothing on him. Not a single lead."

Udina didn't offer any input whatsoever, simply looking defeated and depressed, almost like losing was a big loss to him. _Probably a famous debater for all I know and has never lost or something like that. _Marcus didn't want to admit it, but he felt the same. On the battlefield he may have seemed invincible, but with politics? He was useless. Speaking to politicians to him was like trying to destroy a tank by punching it. Unless you were superman, the hulk or a very powerful biotic, it just couldn't be done. Then he remembered Garrus' words. _I've still got one lead to follow and I'm not letting them die. _

"Wait, what about Garrus?" He said without thinking, both Anderson and Udina snapping their looks towards him, both with fixed stares. "Who?" they both said simultaneously, as if working in conjuction.

"He's a C-Sec investigator, I, we, saw him arguing with the executor. He said something about 'I've still got one lead to follow and I'm not letting them die.' His exact words, I think he may have been on to something. If we can find him...help him maybe..." Udina's face lit up like Marcus had just told him Santa was real all this time and never new and Anderson grinned, a very large grin.

"Excellent! Where is he now?" Anderson started.

"That's a good question. He didn't tell us where he was going." Kaidan stated, Marcus and Ashley nodding at him in agreement, shrugging their shoulders as well for further emphasis.

"Then you have no choice but to speak to Harkin." Udina stated, but he didn't get to say anymore as Anderson shot him a look that looked as if Udina had just suggested that they hold hands with the geth and sing 'peace to the galaxy' in blissful ignorance. Anderson facepalmed in the old fashioned comical way.

"Oh hell no. Marcus, don't talk to that loser. Try Barla Von..."

"With all due respect captain, he has a better chance with Harkin..." Udina began.

"No he doesn't! The man's mouth is so full of liquor he probably doesn't remember his own name!" Anderson immediately noticed Marcus' confused stare and turned to address him, "Harkin was the first human to become a C-Sec officer. He was meant to be a 'rolemodel' and a man to 'set the stereotype' for humanity and hopefully encourage more trust in us, but the man has an obsession with alcohol. He's been caught bribing, blackmailing, selling drugs and even drinking on the job in Chora's Den or sometimes, on occasion, Flux."

"Guy sounds like a scumbag, why didn't you fire him?" Marcus asked, seemingly curious why the moron was being allowed to stay in the poisition he held. He was meant to be the upholder of justice, not the apologist of crime. Anderson sighed.

"Oh trust me, Palin was deeply considering it and almost did, but Udina managed to pull a few strings to keep him in. We needed him, as much as I hate to admit it, but we needed him to stay so a sufficient amount of human C-Sec officers come in for us to finally cut all ties with him and throw his sorry ass out onto the street. We're close, but not yet. He'll be out soon. As a C-Sec officer, he's your best source on where to find this Garrus, but he's probably too drunk to bother. Try Barla Von, he's a volus corporate executive working on..."

"I'll take my chances with Harkin. I'm not taking my chance with a volus." Marcus stated, showing his first sign of racism; volus. He hated every bit about them. They were apparently the masters when it came to money, being the ones who developed the galactic currency; credits. They had a military pact with the turians that allowed the turians to supply them with a surplus of warships, while they provided the hierarchy economical support. They wore envirosuits when they weren't on Irune, the volus homeworld, due to the mass amount of oxygen in the atmosphere; they can't breath it, which means to much oxygen would act like intense water pressure, popping them like a balloon. The volus reminded him of beachballs in their shape, having a very round appearence. They were a race of midgets, their height being up to a 6 foot 1 man's legs, while being fat by human standards. VERY fat. They, like most other species, had three digits on each hand and foot.

The volus were definitely a very sneaky race, and wouldn't hesitate in snatching away your money. There was the occassional few who could be trusted, but the rest were to be kept away in his opinion. Anderson nodded in a sigh and looked up, "Go to Chora's Den, its Harkin's favourite place to spend time in. He's been suspended from C-Sec for about a month, so he'll probably be getting wasted in Chora's Den. Good luck getting information out of him."

Nodding, he threw the captain a final salute and motioned for his squad to follow him to the nearest rapid transit terminal.

_Chora's Den it is._

**"So tell me, was the encounter with the Council that uneventful? Or do you love making them all sound like ignorant morons?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"They're two kinds of idiocy in this galaxy. There's the unjustified kind, where amateurs and the typical fuckwit belong. Then there's the legitimate kind, who disguise their idiocy using laws, regulations and hide behind their agents. The Council belonged in both, they just didn't realize it."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"So are you saying Shepard met Tali, through Garrus? Is that what your saying?" **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Yes and no. Let's just say that it was actually a woman who led the man to meet his, two years later to be, wife."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

_**Author's Notes:**_

_**Damn you school! Why do you have to do this to me? Why! WHY! You blew it up! You blew it all up! **_

_**Okay, as mentioned above, school is back and I'd like I said, it might conflict with this. I will endeavour to write this chapters whenever possible, just don't expect daily updates. Weekly's are a definite, or maybe the week after if I'm doing a long part for my other fanfic, 'How it Could Have Happened: Mass Effect 3.' I doubt school will really conflict, as my teachers for english and humanities clearly stated homework won't be given to people who do work on time (don't do it on time? Me? Don't be ridiculous!) Not to mention that Drama and Metal Tech wouldn't...shit! I'm giving you my life story! This is a fanfic, not a biography! Back on track...**_

_**Yes, now with that out of the way, let's get to business.**_

_**Review this damn story! Spam the hell out of the reviews section! I need those reviews to motivate me to keep going. And I know there are some reading this who aren't reviewing, and you know who you are (and don't give me the 'I don't know who I am!' bullshit because only Jason Bourne is cool enough for that to be true). So yes, review! Nine reviews? For five chapters? Come on! The first two chapters of To Survive II *shivers* had over fifteen! You can do it! I don't care if you write, "Twilight ftw!" just review! Well, actually don't do that because I'd end up seriously hurting somebody. Not to mention calling in Garrus to 'archangelize' some twilight fans with his widow rifle. Hehehe. Tali and Shepard romance beats that shit BY A MILE.**_

_**Oh, and you are reading this 'person who's name I forgot' and you're the one who followed To Survive II two days ago, 'DON'T!' Seriously, logic dictates not to follow a story that's finished! Ah! Anyway, thanks for listening, if you did. **_

_**Also favourite, follow, and (because I'm a like whore) favourite and follow me as well! **_

_**For I will destroy you if you don't! MUWAHAHAHAHA.**_

_**I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite audience on the Citadel. (Don't worry Reaver, I mean you to, even if you do go out of your way to be pessimistic on every story I write, no matter the quality).**_

_**Now I do believe Mass Effect 3 needs some...Talibrations...**_

_**MUWHAHAHAHAHA**_


	7. Chapter 5 Damsel In Distress

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER FIVE:**

**DAMSEL IN DISTRESS**

_June 16, 2183_

_1500 hours._

_Lower Wards, Chora's Den, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Mission Parameters: Question Harkin. He may have information pertaining to Garrus Vakarian's whereabouts. Lethal force is NOT authorized unless target is armed._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko._

Marcus began to regret using the Presidium as a stereotype for the Citadel. It hadn't been long since they'd departed the Citadel Tower and travelled into the depths of the Shalta Wards. They were now in a very low area of the wards, where most of the poor or criminally assiociated people lived. This particular section of the area had a clinic, a upper and lower market area, a beautiful view of the wards and the Destiny Ascension, the asari dreadnought and flagship of the Citadel fleet, Flux, which was a casino cross dance club and of course, Chora's Den, which had to be the most vile of the places.

C-Sec Academy was located lower into the wards, where most of the civilized people lived and where C-Sec was able to keep the wards in check. He had come across a very enthusiastic young human C-Sec officer by the name of Lang, and numerous other less friendly officers. His destination was Chora's Den; a dingy, gentleman's strip club run by notorious criminal Fist. It was said he ran a 'crime' gang, composed mostly of humans, turians and a few krogan. Fist himself sounded krogan, which explained his krogan assiociates. The fact that it was a strip club made sense due to what he was informed of Harkin's reputation, and he surmised it wouldn't be hard to find the man.

Their mission to Chora's Den was put on hold however, but Kaidan's curiosity.

"Wow, you know the Citadel is big, but when you see it like this, just wow...," The soldier stated as he let his gaze fall over the goliath construct the galaxy called their capital, "I thought Jump Zero was big, but this place simply dwarfes it. And the Destiny Ascension? That easily has the firepower to take on two of our fleets! Not to mention that thing's MAC could easily tear through a dreadnought's shields. I'll give it to the asari, they know how to make vessels for war."

Marcus gazed out at the pulsing purple sun of Widow, its purple color illuminating the Citadel in glorious light. It was simply a wonderous sight, and even Ashley seemed to be enjoying the view through the thick glass. He watched as numerous warships, ships that made up the Citadel's defense fleet, flew past, their hulls brisling with weaponry, while cars, trucks, transports and civilian merchant freighters glided past, heading to and from the Citadel's five, enormous, wards or 'arms.' Ashley nodded at Kaidan's statement.

"I'll give it to aliens in general, they know how to build stuff. And to think all they did was build upon what the Prothean's already created." Marcus nodded in agreement. It had been the asari who discovered the Citadel, and when they had it was just a barren construct with nothing but wide open space. Now the wards were dotted with numerous skyscrapers of numerous cultures and a proper interior.

"Its amazing, truly amazing. All my life I've never seen something so big, yet so tranquil." Marcus stated clearly, Ashley and Kaidan responding with light chuckles. Ashley spoke up first, "Its a pity humanity barely has a place here. We're all still newbies. And so low in the community caste. They treat us like second-class citizens; down there with the batarians, krogan and the suit-rats." Marcus didn't quite understand the last bit. _Suit-rats? What the hell is a suit-rat? I'll have to ask about that later. _

"Why? I mean look at the vids. We have a amazing homeworld, beautiful women and this emotion called love. According to them we have everything they want." He stated, Kaidan nodding while Ashley simply laughed half-heartedly.

"Yeah? Well don't expect me to strip down to a bikini and swimsuit out of the blue. You'd have to buy dinner for me first. With all due respect sir." Ashley added with a last bit of mocking undertone, something most superiors would scold, but he wasn't the typical commander. He chuckled at Ashley's statement, the trio simply enjoying the sights as time went lazily by. Checking his chrono, he almost cursed to himself as he realized just how far time had flown.

"Come on, we're behind as it is. We should get to Chora's Den and get this meeting over with." Marcus ordered, his tone full of irritation and exasperation. He really wasn't looking forward to doing this.

"Talking with the scum of the galaxy. This oughta be fun. Although I'd prefer to talk to posh british people than him." Ashley stated, following behind Marcus and Kaidan as they approached the exit into the back alleys of the wards. The place lived up to its word; filthy, disgusting and downright smelly. Even in outer space, it looked like utopia's were in short supply. _Even aliens aren't perfect. More like humans than they care to admit. _The entire slum like area was illuminated in blood red light as they walked down the stairs towards Chora's Den, a keeper walking past to finish some mundane task.

Ashley made disgusted sounds while the trio then put on their helmets, switching off their olfactory filters to save themselves of the smell. It wasn't long before they were out on a less putrid catwalk area, the sign 'Chora's Den' in bold, pink letters up above with an asari in a less-dignant pose. He scoffed in repulsitivity, already disgusted by the place before he had even entered.

Without a word, they approached the front door of the bar and hit the button to open it. He heard the door slide open to invite him into the world of asari strippers, krogan bartenders and crime bosses. However, instead of hearing pounding exotic music and the sounds of flirting, he heard nothing. Nothing...but shouting.

The bar was simple; it was circular, with a circular bar area in the middle, with numerous chairs and seating arrangments, and was illuminated in a pink light. Numerous tables were sat around the room's circumfrance, places for men to sit down and have a good show with their assigned stripper or to drink themselves to death. The walls were grey or silver in color; he couldn't know since the pink light was masking the hidden color.

"You think yourself worthy to face me you pathetic pyjak? Your probably not even worthy of the clan you were born to!" He heard a strong, intimidating and gruff voice ring out from the otherside of the bar, and he motioned for his squad to follow him to the origin of the shouting. He found it, and the sight was intimidating in itself. He saw a single large krogan, wearing blood red armor and blood red eyes to match, a Solokov Shotgun on the back of his waist as he shouted down another krogan, a bouncer by the look of it, and he was surrounded by numerous turian, human and krogan thugs of all kinds.

The bouncer barely flinched, "Leave Wrex, Fist won't warn you again." Marcus frowned and realized he had to stop this before it got out of hand.

"What's going on here?" Marcus demanded as he joined the blood red krogan's side, Ashley and Kaidan unquestioningly joining his side, although mentally pondering Marcus' sanity level. The krogan named Wrex that he stood next to fixed his red eyes on him, his canine teeth clearly visible in his sneer. The bouncer shook his head, "None of your business, civvie, now leave before Fist decides to have us you throw you out."

"Civvie? I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier," Marcus stated, clearing his throat, "I'm Lieutenant Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy, Alliance Navy, and I DEMAND to know what is going on here before I'm forced to call C-Sec to arrest all of you." The bouncer immediately seemed to immediately back off slightly, while his hand fiddled on his hip for his pistol, the other thugs ready to draw their own weapons.

"Shit! We've been found out! Kill them! None of them leaves this -" The bouncer didn't even finish his sentence as his chest was ripped open by a shotgun slug, Wrex having fired the shot and now had his weapon bared on the dead bouncer, body crumbling to the ground. His voice bellowed, "Who's next!" Before they knew it; utter chaos.

The thugs all drew their weapons, but their hesitation is what cost them; not to mention that they were dealing with a krogan AND three well-trained alliance marines. Before drawing his diamond back, Marcus felt his body rapidly bolster in biotic energy before he leapt forward, his body becoming missile as he initiated a biotic charge into the first krogan he saw. The krogan was thrown like a high-velocity bullet into the wall, the audible sick sounds of bones cracking as Marcus immediately followed up with a combat roll into the nearest available cover. The krogan didn't even get up.

Gunfire rang out all over the place, with Wrex becoming an unstoppable juggernaut, his body pulsing in biotics as he tossed thugs aside like rag dolls and pumped shotgun rounds into their frail bodies, ripping them apart. Most of the thugs paniced and attempted to run away, but it was Kaidan and Ashley who stopped that; Ashley unleashing round after round from her assault rifle into her enemies while the thugs uselessly fired their weapons at Kaidan, the rounds bouncing off his versatile tech armor.

Marcus barely had to contribute, as the skirmish had ended as fast as it had begun. Holstering his diamond back, he saw slowly approached Wrex, who immediately spun around, his shotgun bared on Marcus' head. Marcus held up his hands in a gesture of peace almost immediately, attempting to reason with the krogan.

"We're not enemies, we are only looking for a way to take down Saren and we thought our friend would be here, " _Great friend. Sure... _"But then we stumbled into these idiots and thought...we might help you." Wrex seemed to roll these words around in his head, as if tasting them to check for their validity. After what felt like an eternity, the krogan finally lowered his Solokov.

"I'll trust you for now, human. You're taking down Saren you say?" Wrex asked, his posture one of mistrust. _Can't say I don't blame him, but I just wish he'd stop looking like I'm going to pounce on him or something. If I wanted him dead, he would be. _

"Yes. He's got a geth army under his command and is planning to invade Council space. The Council doesn't believe he's guility, but a man named Garrus seemed to think he was on to something." Marcus immediately noticed Wrex roll his eyes at the mention of Garrus, which aroused enough curiosity from him to ask, "You know Garrus?" Wrex simply nodded, and then checked the area around him, as if looking for anyone eavesdropping on him.

"Damn turian tried to stop me when I was interrogating a human for the location of Fist. Although he told me he was here, so I guess he's not too bad. Doesn't mean I like him though." Marcus raised a brow. _He's after Fist? Wow, for a crime boss he must not be very popular._

"You're after Fist?" Marcus asked. Wrex simply nodded.

"I'm a mercenary. I follow contracts for the money. And my client just happens to want Fist's head delivered on a plater." Marcus held back an exasperated sigh. _He's a merc, I should just shoot him now. Mercenaries aren't to be trusted. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, see where it gets us. But as soon as I so much as lose sight of him, he's dead. _

"I could help you with that. If he's a criminal, he needs to be removed...or incarcerated. Either way, we get rid of him. But then I have to continue my search for Garrus." Marcus motioned for Wrex and Kaidan to follow, but was surprised when he noticed Ashley was missing. Kaidan looked like he was about to explain, but then the door leading to the other section of Chora's Den opened and her pink-armored form stepped through it, shaking her head.

"Fist's gone. He's not in his office, he's nowhere. I think he may have seen Santa Claus here storming his way and made a run for it." Wrex seemed to twist his features in rage at this revelation, and Marcus simply shook his head in annoyance. "Fine then, we'll continue our search for Garrus and hope he has information pertaining to Fist's whereabouts. Come on." He motioned for Ashley and Kaidan to follow, but didn't get to move any further as Wrex's hulking form appeared in front of him, Ashley and Kaidan raising their weapons at the huge beast.

"You look like your worthy of your uniform. Your biotics are also something commendable. Everything about you shouts authority. I would like to join you." Marcus was taken aback by this sudden turn of events, and Kaidan seemed to loosen the tight grip he had on his weapon, while Ashley didn't even budge, not as willing to let her guard down on the towering juggernaut.

"You want to join me? As in...you want to become part of my squad?" Marcus asked, not sure what it'd be like having a krogan on his team, especially since it was an alien. He was used to commanding men and women of his own people, not aliens. But how hard could it be?

"No, you stupid pyjak, I want join Fist because I don't care about money," Wrex stated sarcastically. Marcus chuckled, "Point taken. You do realize that in doing this, you willing accept my command?" He decided to leave out the fact that in the end, Anderson commanded the ship, so it was his decision whether he'd join the crew or not. So the krogan's posting would only be temporary.

"Yes, human, I accept your command. Now let's get moving, my plates are itching for more combat." Wrex stated bluntly, stepping out of Marcus' path and allowing him to continue out of the bar, followed by Kaidan, Wrex and Ashley who had her weapon firmly trained on Wrex's back, deciding not to take any chances with her commander's back turned to him.

It wasn't long before they made it back into the main wards area, but they weren't welcomed by the sight of civilians going to and from their daily business, but by a heavily armed C-Sec SWAT team, weapons bared on them. A single human, wearing heavy body armor, approached them, pistol dangling at his side.

"We told you to stop causing trouble around here Wrex. Now I'm afraid you'll have to come in with us." He immediately noticed the man's nametag on his chest. _Sergeant Armando Owen Bailey. _He immediately stood forward to Wrex's defense, "What's the trouble officer?" Bailey's look immediately shifted to Marcus, his look demanding.

"Trouble is that I just got a report that Wrex stormed into Chora's Den and began shooting up the place. Its my job to deal with potential threats, and a heavily armed krogan can definitely be perceived as a potential threat." Bailey finished dryly. Marcus nodded but then motioned at Wrex with his hand, "Fist and his thugs had it coming. They deserved it. And as agent of the Council I'm going to ask that you let it go and allow us to continue with our mission." Bailey raised a brow at Marcus but then shifted his look to Wrex, seemingly pondering whether he should let the krogan go or not.

Finally, with a exasperated sigh, he turned to Marcus, "Very well, but I need an ID, and what's the terms of your mission?" He motioned for his team to lower their weapon, which they all did with a tinge of reluctance. Marcus nodded and opened his omni-tool, sending Bailey the required information. He then stood and waited as Bailey skimmed over the information, his eyes widening at some points. Finally content with the info given, Bailey deactivated his omni-tool and turned to Marcus.

"You're after Saren? Funny that, my friend Garrus was doing the same thing."

That got Marcus' attention. He immediately spun to face Bailey, "Garrus? Do you know where we can find him?" Bailey nodded and then pointed towards the clinic at the other side of the plaza, "Yeah, last I heard he was going to talk to Dr. Michel about these quarians. Apparently they have information pertaining to Saren or something." From behind him, Marcus swore he heard Ashley mutter 'suit-rats, wonderful' but he let it slip.

"Thanks Sergeant. I'm glad you didn't have to shoot us up." Marcus stated, shaking Bailey's hand as the other officers began to leave, single file. Bailey chuckled as he turned to follow, "Yeah, well if my job involved not doing these kinds of operations I'd be bored out of my brains by now." With that, Bailey was gone. Marcus immediately moved towards the clinic, his squad falling in line behind him.

_Two quarians? This oughta be interesting. _Marcus thought, a smile tugging at his lips.

**{Loading...Rewind}**

_June 16, 2183 (Translated Khelish Time)_

_Fourteenth Hour, Twenty-Eight Minutes._

_Industrial Sector, Garbage Disposal, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Marine Escort Keenah'Butras vas Rayya._

"Shit! Miss Zorah! Damn it, Snipe -" Keenah didn' get to finish as a second shot rang out, striking him in the arm just as Tali finished falling to the ground, a minor suit puncture appearing in her arm. Keenah was not so lucky. She watched as the round not only punctured his arm, but completely ripped it off, fountains of skarlet blood spraying all over in a bloodied pool, while leaving Keenah screaming in unbelievable pain.

"What the hell is -" The asari officer barely got out the sentence before a third and final shot zoomed past and impacted her skull, splitting it open as she fell forward onto the ground, dead. Civilians all over began screaming as they fled in panic, but in a directed pattern; they were headed right from them, which meant...

Tali managed to look to her left to see a turian and three salarians approach from behind, the turian wielding a naginata sniper rifle. Tali immediately paniced having no idea what she was going to do. Tears began streaming down her cheeks as she realized there was no hope. _I'm a foolish little girl against four heavily armed mercenaries and my marine escort crippled. My pilgrimage is over. I'll never see the fleet again. Goodbye father, Auntie Raan, Meru..._

_"Ancestors watch over you child..." _Meru's words popped up in her mind.She felt renewed confidence as she turned around, omni-tool appearing on her arm as she shot a program called 'sabotage' towards the group. Usually it'd only work on a individual, manually tricking the weapon into thinking its mass accellerator has reached its peak and overheating it. However, Tali was a quarian, and she was able to modify the program to effect multiple. The program fired, a beam of orange impacting the lead turian and spreading to the others, leaving them all stunned. Now was her chance to escape.

Ignoring the blockage in her sinuses from the allergic reaction she was suffering, she forced herself up and hooked her strong arm over Keenah's shoulders, picking up the marine. He weighed alot more than her, but she was able to hold onto him without much effort needed and she speed walked as fast she could out of the commons and towards the elevator. _We need to get out of here. _But just as they reached the elevator, she hesitated.

_They could easily hack the elevator. _She frantically looked around and saw railing, nearby seeing it drop into a less prettier area of the Citadel. _Garbage Disposal. They won't follow us in there. _"Suit-rat bitch!" Tali immediately snapped her look around to see the turian and his salarian comrades running behind them, and without hesitation, she leapt over the rail, Keenah in tow. She felt her body sail through the air until finally impacting on the ground with a loud thud. Pain shot up her spine, but after moving she knew it wasn't broken and turned her attention to Keenah, who, once again, didn't fair better.

He was cradling one of his legs; he had broken it. Cursing in khelish for her foolishness, she immediately dove towards and Keenah and helped him up again, hearing the turian shout more racist insults down towards them before disappearing, most likely to find another way to reach them or because he'd given up. Tali surveyed her surroundings as Keenah placed all his weight on her, trying just barely to stand up, the amount of bloodloss he'd sustained unbelievable, most of it soaking into her veil, leaving wet patches of red on her otherwise purple veil.

The room was dark, aside from the red glow of the incinerators vaporizing trash. This area was the most unsafe on the Citadel, and it'd been well known for lots of unlucky people to have been caught in the incinerators and killed; leaving no trace of their deaths as every bit of them, right down to their atoms, was erased from existence. You'd die and noone would ever know.

Gulping, Tali decided to take the maintenance corridor that lead around the incinerators, hopefully avoiding contact with them and losing the turian and his squad in the process. No such luck.

"There they are! Kill the filth, Saren wants their bucketheads on a platter!" Tali didn't even turn at the infuritated turian, instead increasing her pace. She watched as another incinerator activated, so close that the intense heat even infiltrated her suit's environmental systems, heating her up like she was in a volcano, red light illuminating her petite features. It was now that a plan formed in her head. _What if I could lure them into an incinerator..._ Tali immediately realized how suicidal her thoughts were. If she so much as hesitated, Keenah and her life were over. Finished.

_You want to prove yourself worthy to the fleet? Now's the time. _Tali, without thinking, headed straight through the incinerator, using her omni-tool to delay its activation by two minutes. She would act trapped, which would certainly lure the turian and his salarians in. _A huge gamble. But its all I have to get rid of these bosh'tets. _Just before she could continue however, Keenah released her grip and fell onto the incinerator, causing Tali to stop and spin to face him. That was no accident, he had purposely done that.

"Keenah you bosh'tet, what are you doing!?" She snapped at the marine, his posture telling Tali to stay away. He shook his head.

"My job, ma'am. Go. Activate that incinerator when he's inside." He ordered her, Tali's eyes opening when she realized what he was doing.

"But you'll get caught in the blast Keenah!" She couldn't bare to think of what she'd do without Keenah. He was her only link to her people, and if he died; she'd have to face the racism of the galaxy by herself. _Just like an adult has to..._

"I know that ma'am. But look at me! I've lost my arm and my leg is broken, I'm only going to slow you down! I'm as good as dead anyway, if I escape this I'll just die of infection anyway. Here..." He reached down into a suit pocket and threw her a packet of medi-gel and she caught it in her hands.

"Apply it. It should numb the infection until you can find a hospital. Just go, save yourself, warn the fleet! Go and activate the damn incinerator!" Tali looked at Keenah pleadingly, but knew full well the marine had made up his decision. If Kal was in Keenah's place, he'd do the same, no matter the choice.

"Clan Butras should be honored to have such a man in their number. May your body find peace in the stars, Keenah'Butras vas Rayya." Tali quoted, holding a small, three-fingered hand to the area just above her breasts, closing her eyes in a traditional bow, "Keelah Se'lai." Keenah reciprocated her words before the turian's voice could be heard again.

"Now go! Do it! Save yourself! For the fleet!" Keenah rushed her, and Tali didn't even hesitate as she started running, resetting the incinerator's activation time to twenty seconds. She ran as fast as her legs would allow, her arm screaming in protest as she applied medi-gel to it mid-run, not even daring to stop in fear of being attacked again. Finally, seeing light, she stopped and saw the turian stopping and placing a pistol to aim at Keenah's mask, a smile on his features.

Tali's face creased in anger as she saw the incinerator's countdown. _2...1...Activate. _She hit the button to activate and watched as Keenah, the turian and his mercenary assets disappeared in a hellish red light. The red was gone as quickly as it came, leaving no trace of her quarian companion or her pursuers. Tali felt a tear fall down her cheek as she climbed a nearby ladder and exited the garbage disposal area, entering the corridor just outside Flux. Turning to make sure noone saw her, she slipped out and ran through the door.

Seeing a nearby asari, she ran towards her, "Please! You have to help me! Do you know where I can find -" The asari simply shoved her off with a disgusted look, shouting, "Revolting suit-rat! How dare you touch me! Filthy garbage!" Tali didn't even bother with anyone else as she ran through the plaza, beginning to panic. It was then that she spotted the words 'clinic' above a shop nearby. _Clinic means meds. And meds means..._

Without hesitation, Tali immediately ran towards the clinic, hoping the manager wasn't racist. She didn't even wait for the door to open, simply hacking it with her omni-tool and bursting inside to see a young, red haired woman standing next to a line of beds. The woman turned towards her, with a smile.

"Hello! I'm Doctor Chloe Michel, how can I -" Michel's eyes widened in shock as Tali collapsed onto her, her arms wrapping around the quarian to stop her from falling any further, "Are you alright?" the doctor shouted, lifting Tali onto a nearby bed. Tali shook her head as she looked at the doctor, shaking all over.

"I...I...me and my companion were just minding our own business when...we...we were shot. They tried to kill us. I killed them. I had too. They would have killed me. My friend didn't make it, he stayed behind to save me. Please...I need...help." Michel nodded, leaving Tali to remuge through her things, finally returning with a syringe. "This is going to hurt a little, okay? Don't worry, its sterile and dextro-amino." Tali nodded frantically, wanting anything to remove the drowsiness she felt. A jolt of pain went up her arm, followed by instant relief.

"Thank you, thank you so much. Your the first one on this stupid station to actually have been polite to me." Tali tested her arm, feeling that it still hurt but was able to force herself to sit up on the edge of the bed. Michel simply smiled warmly at her, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "Its okay. Most people are just ignorant racists, but I honestly don't understand what its all about. A few quarians steal stuff and the next thing you know, people think your all thieves! Just ignore them. Besides, you seem sweet. Poor thing, you must be traumatized. What happened? Did you see who shot you?"

Tali simply looked into Michel's eyes, seeing a tinge of trust in them. She could trust this woman, her gut, her logic, her emotions were screaming it to her. Tali sighed and began to speak, "I don't know. I think it might have been one of Saren's agents trying to keep us quiet." Michel's raised her eyebrows at Tali's accusation.

"Saren? As in Saren Arterius, the turian Spectre? Why would he want you dead?" Tali widened her eyes at Michel, completely oblivious to the fact that Saren was a spectre. _Must have turned a traitor. _Her people were very familiar with spectres, as her people had once had some before their exile, but all had died in defense of Rannoch in the Morning War.

"Saren's betrayed the Council. He has someone acquired a geth army under his command and is planning to invade Council space. We tried to warn Illium! We tried to warn C-Sec! None of the bosh'tets would listen! Now I just don't care. I just...want to trade this information for...somewhere...to hide." Tali finished, feeling ashamed of what she just said. _Oh really Tali? You want to be a coward now? Are you a Koris now? What would father think of this? Afterall, who wants a cowardly girl as a daughter? He'd be the laughing stock of the fleet! _But in the end, when it came to it, Tali realized something: she didn't care.

All her father had ever done for her was the pilgrimage training and having Keenah assigned to her; that's all. He'd never shown her what she wanted most from him; love for his daughter. He'd never treated her right ever since Meru died, and it had only gradually gotten worse. Now, for all she cared, his reputation could just fall into the deep end and blow up for all she cared. She wanted this nightmare to end.

Michel simply nodded, "Well, there is someone working for the Shadow Broker here on the Citadel. He isn't nice, but I'm sure he'd be willing to take your info, not to mention he'd find you somewhere safe to hide." Tali immediately snapped her look back to Michel, shocked by her words. _Does he now? _

"Who is this person? I need to know now before they find me again!" Michel nodded frantically to get Tali to calm down before speaking, "His name is Fist. He's an agent for the Shadow Broker. He's holed up in Chora's Den. He can find you some place -" She felt herself immediately cut off as Tali darted for the door, only stopping to thank her as she rushed out the door.

_Poor thing must really be terrified._

With that, Michel simply returned to work, hoping the young girl would be okay.

**{Loading...Fast Forward}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1514 hours._

_Hellion Plaza, Dr. Michel's Clinic, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Mission Parameters: Garrus is talking to Doctor Chloe Michel to find the evidence, discovered to be in the hands of two quarians, names unknown. Find out what Garrus knows and assist in efforts to bring the evidence to judicial authority._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex._

"Okay, this looks like the..." Marcus began to say as he opened the door. The sight before him was completely unexpected. There was three thugs, Fist's by the looks of it, in the room, their leader holding what he assumed was Dr. Michel in a headlock, holding a judgement that he was holding at her head. He also noticed the form of Garrus hiding nearby, his pistol at the ready. Garrus turned towards him and motioned for him to distract the thug.

Marcus nodded and motioned for Ashley, Kaidan and Wrex to follow him inside, door closing behind them. That got the thug's attention, as instead of shouting threats at the helpless doctor, he immediately turned to assess the new threat, pistol raised. "Who the hell are you?" the thug shouted in a threatening tone, his finger squeezing on the trigger. Before a shot could even go off however, Garrus leapt from his hiding spot, and with a single well placed shot, hit the thug clean through the side of the head, causing his grip on Michel to lessen enough for her to wriggle out and take cover.

The last two thugs attempted to retaliate by raising their pistols, but they never even got to fire. Glowing in pulsing blue biotics, he raised his hand and picked up one of the beds behind the thugs and then pulled his hand backwards fast, causing the bed to impact the thugs and sent them sprawling. Taking the stunned thugs by surprise, Garrus quickly picked them off.

Holstering his pistol, the turian moved to help Michel up as Wrex moved to guard the door against anymore unwanted company, leaving Ashley, Kaidan and Marcus to talk to Garrus and the doctor. With the doctor up off the ground, Garrus turned to Marcus and nodded, "Thanks Shepard, your distraction allowed me to get a shot at that bastard."

"Nice shot by the way, but we heard you were hunting down two witnesses and thought you could use some help." Marcus stated, crossing his arms as Ashley sighed in frustration, deciding to help Wrex guard the door while Kaidan stood still, watching the exchange. Garrus nodded, "I see. Yes, two quarians. I saw that they were hurt and knew they'd try and reach the nearest medical facility, so I went to Doctor Michel. But when I got here..."

"Fist's thugs beat you to it. At least we got rid of them." Marcus stated, glancing at the dead bodies of the thugs, before looking back Michel with a warm smile, "Ma'am, I know your scared right now, but I need you to tell me everything you know. Why were these men trying to kill you?" He asked as softly as possible, trying not to sound authoritive towards the woman. She had just survived what could have ended in a bloodbath.

Michel nodded before answering, "Fist. He sent them to shut me up. To stop me from talking about the quarian." Marcus frowned at that. _THE quarian? I thought there was two? _"I don't understand, Bailey told me there was two." He stated, and Garrus nodded, seemingly believing the same thing.

"Yes, she said she was accompanied by another quarian, but she was attacked and his injuries forced him to stay behind and sacrifice himself to save her. Then she came here." Garrus and Marcus started at that, curiosity peaked. Michel continued, "She'd been shot. She told me that Saren Arterius had sent mercenaries to do it. They were dead and she immediately came here. I fixed her up and then she started asking who would be willing to take the information in exchange for a place to hide. I could tell she was scared, the poor thing, and she was definitely very young. I told her to go to Chora's Den to meet Fist, he's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"Who the hell is the Shadow Broker?" Kaidan asked, gaining looks from Garrus, Marcus and Michel. Marcus laughed, "You serious? He's only the most infamous information broker in the galaxy! He, or she, or they, are probably the richest in the galaxy. Noone know who he, she, or they are, what species, their location. Nothing. They know your every secret, and has alot of agents. A private army from what I heard."

"Yeah, and Fist doesn't work for him anymore. Saren offered him something and now he betrayed the Shadow Broker to work for him. From what I heard, Saren ordered him to find and kill the quarian after this turian named 'Jacobus' failed. If the quarian is going to Fist, then the good doctor just sent her to her death." Garrus stated clearly, revealing Fist's true intent. Marcus cursed under his breath and didn't even notice Michel's shocked expression.

"I...what? He betrayed the Shadow Broker? That's stupid, even for him! You have to save that poor girl! She must still be at Chora's Den!" Garrus nodded but stopped upon Marcus' expression, "We were just there. We killed all his thugs but Fist wasn't there, neither was the quarian. Shit, he must have killed her and hidden the body, or he's taken her somewhere else out of fear of discovery and killed her there."

In the background, they heard groaning. Turning, they saw one of the thugs desperately trying to push the bed Marcus had so happily given to him off of him. Garrus drew his pistol, but Marcus immediately put his hand out for the turian to lower the weapon, seeing an oppurtunity to find out some more information. Approaching the trapped thug, he crouched next to him.

"Where's Fist taking the quarian?" He demanded, his voice full of malice and venom. The thug simply chuckled, "Fuck you" he spat, not even looking Marcus in the face.

"Oh come on, is your loyalty to some crime boss really worth your life?" Marcus said, pulling out his raikou pistol and pretending to examine it. The thug's eyes widened as he eyed the pistol, "You wouldn't dare..." the thug muttered, loud enough for the N7 to hear. Marcus simply smiled, "Eleven hundred creds says I will." The thug seemed to gulp two times, the smell of urine entering Marcus' olfactory filters. _He's wet himself. Wonderful. _

"Okay! Okay! He's taken the quarian to the Baria Frontiers office! He plans to kill the quarian there! Our car is outside, take it! Take it!" The thug pleaded, throwing the VAK (vehicular activation key) at him, catching it in his hand as the thug passed out from his fear. Marcus shook his head as he stood up, throwing the VAK into Kaidan's hands as he reapproached the group.

"We'll let C-Sec deal with him. Its time to save a quarian. Garrus, do you know where Baria Frontiers is?" Marcus asked the turian, waiting for the turian's undoubtable knowledge of every bit of the Citadel. He did help maintain its security after all.

Garrus nodded, "Certainly do. But I shall only give that information if I'm allowed to join you. I want to help take down Saren." Marcus raised his eyebrows. Not at the fact that he now had a turian to add to his squad, but that a turian would want to take down Saren, "Why?" Is all he could ask, waiting for the officer's answer.

"Its simple. Saren is a traitor to the Council and a disgrace to my people!" Garrus exclaimed with pure fury, his tone making it evident he wanted Saren dead. Marcus nodded, "Then welcome to the squad Garrus. Although I'm not sure how a turian and a krogan are going to cope together." Garrus frowned at that, "A krogan...?"

Upon noticing Wrex however, Garrus opened his mouth in realization, "Ah...I see. Hello Wrex." A simple grunt was Wrex's only answer, before Garrus rolled his eyes and began to walk outside, followed by Marcus and Kaidan, and finally Wrex and Ashley. Once outside, they noticed the thug's aircar almost immediately, and once the VAK was recognized, they opened the door and sat inside, Marcus taking the driver's seat.

"Now we save, yet again, another Damsel in distress. First Ashley, now some quarian girl? You planning on saving all the women Commander?" Kaidan asked, humor evident in his voice. Marcus chuckled as he started up the car's engines and sped off, heading straight for Baria. "If only, if only." He whispered to himself.

**{Loading...Rewind}**

_June 16, 2183 (Translated Khelish Time)_

_Fourteenth Hour, Thirty-One Minutes._

_Fist's Quarters, Chora's Den, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

Tali ran like she had never before. Her arm no longer screaming in protest, Tali just kept on running towards the strip club, knowing her salvation could be just behind those doors. Finally, she arrived outside the club and opened the door. She was met by pounding music, while asari strippers did shows for numerous men and women, while bartenders served drinks all over, bouncers moving to and from like guards, all armed with pistols, assault rifles and shotguns. Tali simply moved through the room, observing the numerous strippers.

_My people hold dancers in high regard, and I will admit, our women are found to be quite exotic. But this? This is...keelah, how many of these asari are sex slaves? Taken against their will and forced out of their dignity? _Tali shook the thoughts from her head as she continued towards what she thought might be Fist's office. It wasn't long before an asari stopped her and stood right in front of her, licking her lips.

"You look like someone with tastes. Why don't you sit down with me?" The asari asked the quarian. Tali was simply disgusted and attempted to push past the asari, but felt herself pushed into a chair, and the asari immediately followed up by sitting in the quarian's lap. The asari immediately followed up by kissing the quarian's neck, and despite Tali's attempts to push the asari off, she didn't budge.

Finally, the asari whispered in her ear, "I could find us a clean room..." The asari had attempted to sound seductive. But to Tali...oh, she wasn't having any of it. _A clean room? Does she think I'm stupid? _With that, Tali shoved the asari off, causing her to fall onto the ground, sickened by the asari's advances. "I said NO!" The quarian put extra emphasis in her voice, which scared the asari, who decided to save her seduction for some other unfortunate soul.

Tali immediately continued her advance on Fist's quarters, only to find her passage blocked by a bouncer, a krogan bouncer. "What do you want quarian?" The bouncer asked, his voice gruff and demanding, a shotgun on his waist. Tali gulped and decided to choose her next words carefully, conscious of the fact that she was only armed with the knife on her boot, given to her by her mother.

"I'm here to see Fist. I have information he may be interested in acquiring, but I have terms." Tali stated as confidentally as possible, trying not to sound like a naive child. It seemed to have worked, but then the bouncer shook his head, "Fist takes no terms. Leave now or..." Another voice spoke over him, not as demanding and definitely younger, more human.

"Although I might make an exception for such a girl as the one standing before me." Tali looked behind the krogan and the krogan followed her look to a human approaching from Fist's quarters. He had something resembling a 'mohawk' for hair, while he had blue eyes, a black vest and jeans, with runners. _That must be Fist. Not exactly what I expected. _

"Are you Fist?" she asked the approaching human, who stopped next to his krogan bodyguard. The human nodded, confirming her thoughts, motioning for his bodyguard to leave. "I am Fist. And what is your name?" Tali seemed positive that this man was alot less nicer than he was letting in on, but she didn't push for details.

"Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, and I need your help." Fist pondered Tali's words, as if carefully tasting them for any signs of deception. Seeming finally convinced, he motioned for Tali to follow him outside, which she happily did.

"So, what do you have for the Shadow Broker?" Tali was about to ask how he knew but he simply smiled, not elaborating. _Secrecy hmmm? I guess I can live with that as long as it gets me somewhere to hide. _"Evidence that points towards Saren Arterius being a traitor and planning an invasion of Council space with a geth armada. Although I might be willing to trade it for a safe place to hide."

Fist pondered her words, Tali feeling as if he was getting closer to her. Suspicions confirmed, Fist rested his arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her, "Don't worry. I'll make sure the Shadow Broker knows right away." The doors opened outside and Tali swore she could feel his arms moving down her body, as if feeling her out. _Pervert. _Fist's gestures had finally reached boiling point when he pinched her butt, causing her to squeal as she leapt away from the human, now keeping her distance. Fist made an apologetic gesture before Tali realized something. _He's representing the Shadow Broker? Oh I don't think so..._

"I want to see the Broker. In person, not just through you. I will hand the evidence directly to him." Fist's eyes widened in surprise at that, his arms crossing as he pondered the quarian's words. Finally, he spoke up again, "Very well. I'll arrange a meeting at Baria Frontiers. Come on, I'll take you there now." Tali nodded as she let Fist lead the way towards his car. Fist keyed his comm and made sure the quarian couldn't here before the turian spoke into his comm.

"Yes, Fist? Do you have her?" the turian asked, his voice demanding.

"Yes. I'm taking her to Baria Frontiers. However, I want to have some fun with her before you kill her, if you know what I mean." Fist said, a sneer reaching his features and the thought.

"Yeah, you can fuck the suit-rat as much as you want, Saren doesn't care. As long as she ends up dead, that's all that matters. No tricks Fist, we're watching you. If you so much as warn the Shadow Broker, we'll kill you." The turian then disconnected the comm.

"Oh he won't know a thing." He opened the car door and let Tali in, closing the door behind her. Entering the pilot seat, he took off for the Baria Frontiers building, thinking of all the different ways he could have his own personal fun with the girl.

**"Damsel in distress was right. But was Fist really planning on...well...doing that with her? That's sounds a little too over the top, even for him."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Of course he was, the man thought with his dick more than he did his brain, if there was one to speak of. Point is that Mr. Damsel Saver arrived just in time to blow the motherfucker's head off. It was glorious. We were basically the modern version of the avengers...just without superpowers and two times more badass."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

_**Author's Notes: **_

_**Okay guys, I apologize for my comment on 'Talibrations'. That was meant to be a joke, but I will have you know this. 'Tali is not to be treated like that at all and if is Team Dextro will be unleashed upon the perpetrator.' **_

_**Let's get to business. What do you want more emphasis on in this story?**_

_**1. Tali and Shepard Romance Development (which is by far going to be a bitch to do, as I suck at that stuff)**_

_**2. Humurous Crew Bondings (Talking between the crew like teasing, jokes, recounts, nostalgia and heroic speeches)**_

_**3. Combat Scenes (Well, let's face it, the Eden Prime Combat sections was as good as I could do, but I'm sure I could do better. Hehehehe...he?**_

_**4. Storyline (Would you like me to make sections for Benezia? Saren? Sovereign? Maybe even the councilors? You decide)**_

_**Remember to comment in the review section on which you'd like more focus on. Enigma is multiroled, which means its a action/romance/comedy. Anyway, enjoy.**_

_**I will be releasing a fanfiction short based after To Survive II called 'Rael's pilgrimage' and I hope to be able to finish it soon (as its meant to be a short, and not a full fledged series)**_


	8. Chapter 6 Above The Law And Beyond

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER SIX:**

**ABOVE THE LAW AND BEYOND**

_June 16, 2183_

_1539 hours._

_Financial District, Shalta SkyWay, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Mission Parameters: Save Quarian Informant from Criminal known as Fist. Deal with enemy as you see fit. Quarian has high value information vital to uncovering Saren's plot._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian._

"Baria Frontiers is just down here, it shouldn't be too hard to spot, especially since it has this huge ass sign." Garrus announced clearly as Marcus continued to fly the car down the skyway and through the financial district. As he was afraid of the fallout that would most definitely occur with a krogan and turian in such close proximity, he made sure Wrex sat in the back of the car while Garrus sat next to him. Ashley and Kaidan were forced to sit in the back with the big krogan.

Nodding at Garrus' notification, he increased the speed of the aircar so he could overtake any that got in his way. The car zoomed past the numerous trucks and aerial vehicles that also sped past, flying like hordes of bees in formation. Thanks to his training as a N7, he had pretty good piloting skills, easily flying past the numerous cars that flew past and overtaking them.

"These two fleshies are getting annoying." Wrex complained, obviously not content with where he was sitting. As far was Marcus was concerned, he could deal with it. The ride would be decently short at the rate they were going, and he'd be able to nail Fist to a wallpost. Until then he had to suck it up and deal with it. Garrus barely made a sound; simply deciding to gaze out the cockpit of the car at the city below, not even making eye contact with him.

"Hey commander, I think I see it." Ashley said, pointing to a square shaped building down below with the bold pink letters of 'BARIA FRONTIERS COMMISSION' ontop. Nodding, Marcus brought them down. As he began his descent however, he saw the glass infront of him shatter as a bullet impacted it. Instead of continuing descent, Marcus broke off, thinking that a sniper could have lock on them. Pulling out of his dive, he commenced a U-turn, and spun around, speeding back into the skyway.

"Commander, you're not going to like this, but we've got four aircars on our ass and they've got angry looking thugs in them." Garrus announced, causing Marcus to roll his eyes. "Its thugs versus an N7, a sentinel, alliance marine, a krogan and a turian C-Sec officer. Let's show these people it ain't just fucking titles." With that, Marcus motioned for Garrus to take the driver's seat as he kicked the door open and slipped his hand onto the side. He immediately felt the wind brush against his face as he leaned out and pointed his pistol at the nearest car; and fired.

It only took a few shots; but he finally managed to hit the driver of the lead car and sent it spiralling into the streets below, mentally hoping noone would get hurt. _I keep doing that and people WILL get hurt. Plan B. _With a new plan formed in his head, he slipped back inside, retaking the driver's seat, hitting the door panel to close it. Without a moment of hesitation, he descended back towards Baria Frontiers.

"Commander, what the hell are you doing!?" Ashley screamed, noticing he was heading straight for the Baria sign. Marcus simply smiled as Wrex shouted something along the lines of 'only a krogan would do this' and Kaidan and Garrus just held onto the edges of their seats, hoping Marcus was as good a driver as they heard. Without anymore thought, Marcus pulled the car into a fully fledged spin, shooting through the top part of the 'A' on Baria. He smiled a huge smile when Garrus whooed loudly at the sight of one of the shuttles smashing into the sign, causing the A to collapse, while sending a second shuttle spinning onto the roof. Only the fourth and final car remained, heading straight for them.

Marcus immediately saw that the car was moving to ram them from the left. So in retaliation, he simply smashed the window and sent out a biotic shockwave that impacted the car, causing the windows to explode as the occupants were impaled with glass, before sending it crashing into the buildings below. His head already starting to hurt from the amount of biotics he had been using over the course of the day, Marcus cradled his aching head as he changed course and headed straight for Baria Frontiers, hoping dearly that the quarian was still alive.

"Shit commander, you're a better driver than even the Alliance stated." Ashley said, seemingly letting out the air she had been holding in. Garrus had a huge grin on his face, while Kaidan remained stoic, but it was obvious he was holding back a grin. Wrex simply stared ahead, his features not showing any humor. Marcus shook his head, laughing.

"You should see me drive a Mako. You haven't seen me drive until I've driven one of those horrible pieces of tin. Thing handles like a drunken rhino." Ashley just laughed out loudly as did Kaidan, Garrus just lightly laughing.

"You're an charismatic bunch, you know that? I think I can get used to working like this. C-Sec lacks the same enthusiasm." Garrus quipped, preparing his sniper rifle as they began to lower into the alleyways of the commission building. Marcus nodded as he one-handedly prepped Jenkins'...his...punisher sniper rifle, the rest of the team also prepping their own weapons while Wrex simply glowed blue with biotics, his Solokov already sitting in his lap.

"Okay people, lets keep this clean and simple. I don't care how you deal with Fist and his thugs, as long as they're removed as a potential threat. I strongly suggest taking them prisoner, letting C-Sec deal with them -" Marcus didn't get to finish his orders as Garrus interrupted him, "Don't. C-Sec have been letting that bastard go for months. You arrest him and he's out the next day. Kill him, end his criminal ass once and for all. And I'll make sure I'm the one to do it." Garrus said, examining his rifle with renewed vigor.

"Get in line turian, Fist is mine." Wrex declared, Garrus turning to meet the krogan's gaze, both full of loathing and hatred for each other.

"We can decide who kills who when the time comes! Get your act together and prepare to attack on my signal. I'm landing the car here." Marcus ordered before Garrus and Wrex decided to rip at each other's throats, not having the time or patience to break up a fight between two thousand year old mortal enemies.

"Commander! Its the quarian!" Kaidan shouted, motioning ahead of them. Marcus followed his finger and found its destination; a large group of thugs, a turian and others being salarians in white armor, with a single human with a mohawk stepping next to the petite, feminine form of a envirosuited alien. The quarian. What was off however was how the human was interacting with the quarian; he was sliding his hand down her left arm, pervertedly. _And I thought the Tenth Street Reds were bad._

Almost immediately however, he noticed the quarian slap the human's hand away, her pose strengthening to one of defiance. The quarian's audio indicator flashed white at every word she spoke. Then it all happened in a instant; two salarians approached the quarian from behind, but she noticed this and threw an explosive device towards them, the resulting explosion killing the salarians and allowing the quarian to take cover as she reached into her boot and unstrapped her knife.

The human steadily approached, pistol out. That quarian didn't have kinetic barriers; she wouldn't stand a chance and he certainly didn't have enough time to get out and take the man's head off. He had only one choice.

"Buckle in. This is going to hurt." Everyone fixed Marcus with a questioning look, but immediately did as told and activated their seatbelts, prepared for whatever the N7 was about to do. Smiling, Marcus immediately hit the acellerator and the car lunged forward, heading straight for the human.

"Commander you're not going to -" Ashley started to ask, but was cut off by Garrus.

"I think he is!" He shouted over Ashley, holding onto the edge of his seat. Wrex simply had a very large grin on his face, the sight of the frightened fleshies around him being priceless, not to mention how krogan Marcus must seem to him. Before the human could even turn to look at the noise, the car slammed into him sending him spiralling over the roof and onto the ground behind them. With too much momentum, the car was unable to stop and slammed into the wall infront of them. _The galaxy is so advanced and they didn't even bother to come up with a replacement for airbags._

Ignoring the pain in his chest, Marcus unbuckled his seatbelt and kicked the door open, quickly bringing his punisher to bare on the turian. Squeezing the trigger, he watched as the round pierced the turian's skull, living him a bloodied corpse on the ground. It wasn't long before Ashley joined the fight, her avenger cutting into two nearby salarians who simply fell where they stood, green blood spewing all over the place.

Garrus appeared to be an excellent sniper, as he appeared to be taking out the thugs without even hesitating, the salarians falling one by one to his well-placed sniper shots. Before Kaidan and Wrex even got a shot out, the fight was over, the dead remains of Fist's thugs lying all over the place. Smiling, he collapsed his punisher and fed it onto his back, feeling the magnetic clamp clatch onto it.

"Job well done. Now let's -" He was immediately cut off by the sounds of a quarian, her voice modifed by the suit to sound more synthetic, began yelling. A scream of pain followed.

"That was for betraying me, you perverted bosh'tet!" the quarian shouted as loud as she could. As Marcus walked around the corner, he saw the quarian's knife inbedded in Fist's kneecap, to which the quarian forcefully yanked it back out, sticking it back into her boot. He continued to approach as the quarian turned to face him.

Then it was as if time froze.

**{Loading...Rewind}**

_June 16, 2183 (Translated Khelish Time)_

_Fifteenth Hour, Forty-Two Minutes._

_Alleyway outside Baria Frontiers Commission, Finanicial District, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Criminal Boss Sig "Fist" Tarleuz _

The alleyway was utterly silent except for the sound of her footsteps and Fist. He had told her that the Shadow Broker had been informed of her demands and was planning to meet her here. _Its an odd place to meet, but as long as it gets me some place to hide, I'll be fine with it. _She reached into her pocket and pulled out the OSD holding the information, fiddling with it in her hands.

Sighing, she fit it back into her pocket as she continued to follow Fist down the alleyway. Rounding a corner, she came face to face with a large group of white armored salarians and a single turian with a face mask. The turian appeared to glare at her as she walked past him, moving to stand inside the ring of salarians, Fist moving next to her, pistol on his hip. The turian stood behind Fist, his arms crossed, glaring directly at her.

"So, this is where we'll meet him?" Tali asked the man, wondering why a group of salarians was needed for a meeting. _Bodyguards? Afterall, the Shadow Broker is a very infamous being. _Upon Fist's nod, she began twindling her thumbs and looking around, anxiously waiting the being's arrival. A few minutes later. Tali's head immediately snapped up, as if to find the source of the explosions, and Fist and his turian companion appeared to do the same thing.

"What in sam hell was that?" Fist shouted, still looking above. It was then that a giant, glowing 'A' sign came crashing above, sparks flying in all directions, a crashed car ontop of it. _Keelah, is it a warzone up there? Or have Saren's thugs come after me? _She reached behind her back to grab her shotgun, only to remember that C-Sec had confiscated it, and that her knife wouldn't be much use against assassins. Then the explosions stopped completely. Sighing with relief, she turned back to Fist, who greeted her with a simple smile as she asked her new question.

"Fist, where is the Shadow Broker? He should be here by now." Fist's features turned from warm kindness to one of frustrated annoyance. _I knew he was a lot less kind then he let in on. _Instead of lashing out at her though, he simply replaced his frustration with a smile, moving slowly towards her. "He'll be here soon. Don't worry. So, give me the OSD." Fist smiled pervertedly as he began stroking her arm. Tali resisted the temptation to punch him in the face, but came to a sudden epiphany. _No Shadow Broker, no info Fist. That was the deal._

She finally lashed out, slapping his hand off her arm, her features creased in anger, even though he couldn't see it. "No way. The deal is off. I'm leaving Fist." Fist immediately attempted to grab her, but she leapt out of the way only to see the turian motion for two salarians to move towards her. This didn't go unnoticed, and within seconds, she reached into her pockets, finding that her tech grenades were still there and took it out, priming it. _C-Sec need to improve their body searches._

Once primed, she threw it directly at the approaching thugs, the device exploding in bright orange light, killing them instantly as she took the oppurtunity to sprint for cover; hopefully before Fist and his gang opened fire. She just made cover as a unusual sound was heard, but she ignored it in favor of living. Hiding behind her cover, she unsheathed her knife, ready to gut her attackers. _I knew I couldn't trust him. Now I'm going to die for my foolishness. _To keep herself from shaking uncontrollably, she tightened her grip on the knife, trying to flood confidence into her. She listened helplessly as she prepared to lash out, the sounds of footsteps fast approaching.

Then all went loud as a piercing screech was heard, followed by gasps of shock and the sound of cracking glass, and finally, a body tumbling to the ground. Peeking over her cover, she saw Fist on the ground, cradling his legs as the turian and salarians approached a crashed car. She frowned at her rescuer's entrance. _Or are they trying to kill me? _It didn't matter, all she had to do now was watch the commotion. She almost screamed as she watched the turian's head explode, followed by many of his thuggish companions dying around him.

She saw another turian emerge from the wreckage, wielding a advanced looking sniper as he cut into the salarians. Another figure, a human glowing in tech armor and medium body armor, followed behind the turian as he cut into the thugs with ease. Within seconds, they were all dead. She creeped out of her cover and moved towards Fist, knife in her hand. Fist looked at her in surprise but didn't get to make a sound as she lunged and stabbed him in the kneecap, Fist screaming in pain as she spoke, "That was for betraying me, you perverted bosh'tet!" She spat as she removed the knife, sheathing it in her boot.

Looking up, she saw possibly five of the most well-armed figures she had ever seen. A single human stood before her, his heavy armor gleaming in the red light of the alleyway, 'N7' broiled across his chest. He wore a helmet that hid most of his features, while he held a punisher sniper rifle in lower parry. To his right stood a human female in white and pink armor holding an avenger assault rifle, her features hidden behind another helmet, but she could tell she was disgusted at the sight of her.

Another human stood to his left, a male, the one she'd seen before with the tech armor, who held a simple pistol in his right hand, smiling at her. Whether it was of their victory over her or actual kindness, she didn't know. The turian from before stood to the human male's left, holding his sniper rifle while seemingly scanning the area for more hostiles. The most notable feature of the squad, one that made her shiver, was the huge krogan towering behind them all, his Solokov shotgun held infront of him as he gave her a stoic stare.

Upon instinct, she picked up Fist's pistol and pointed it at the N7, causing him to freeze in place and the female to level her weapon on her, followed by the krogan, but the other's didn't react, simply stopping as the N7 raised his hands up in a peaceful gesture.

"Whoa, slow down. We're not here to hurt you." The N7 said, holstering his sniper rifle to reinforce his point, followed by the rest of his squad and, with some reluctance, the female human. Tali just scanned the man before speaking. "Fist set me up. I knew I couldn't trust him. Shadow Broker must have set him to kill me." Tali said, holstering the pistol on her hip. She knew these people could easily gun her down quicker than she could blink, so she took her chances.

"You mean Saren. Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker." The turian stated clearly, nodding at his own words. Tali's eyes opened in shock. _Fist was working with Saren all along? So this was a trap! _Tali mumbled under her breath before turning back to the group. The N7 was the first to speak.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need medi-gel?" He asked, his voice...sincere. Fist's kindness had been dripping with an ulterior motive but this human...he seemed, genuinely kind. Was she dreaming?

"I can handle myself, although I appreciate the help. Although...I still don't know the names of my rescuers." _Great work Tali. 'I can handle myself' that's a excellent way to thank them! Why don't you call them idiotic bosh'tets while you're at it, foolish girl! _she mentally kicked herself, but the human's answer was actually a laugh. The N7 scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh, yeah. Almost forgot," his voice immediately turned from sheepish to serious, his posture strengthening, "Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy. These are my companions," he pointed to the female, who's glare didn't wither, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams," he moved to the male, "Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko," he jabbed a thumb at the krogan, "Urdnot Wrex."

"_Battlemaster _Urdnot Wrex...and don't you forget it." The krogan grumbled, fiddling with his solokov for emphasis.

The human commander named Shepard finally turned to the turian, "and C-Sec Officer Garrus Vakarian, the one who's been looking for you ever since you arrived here. He's the reason we even found out about you, so you can thank him." Garrus nodded, smiling at Tali. Tali was surprised by the amount of hostility; there was none. She had expected things like 'we saved you suit-rat' or 'give us what we need filth.' Instead, she had been politely introduced to the man's squad. Shepard's voice broke her from those thoughts.

"And finally, the damsel in distress. You are miss...?" Tali cocked her head in confusion. _A what in distress? Is that a insult or something? Nevermind that! He's waiting!_

"T-Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya." She stated, stuttering. _What is wrong with you? _Shepard instead smiled, "That's a nice name. Nice to meet you...would you prefer Miss Zorah? Or Miss nar Rayya?" He asked her. Tali was now even more flabbergasted. _First he shows no racism and now he's actually asking my opinion. Is this all a dream or something? _Tali seemed to ponder this for a few moments before looking back at him, "J-j-just call m-me Tali. Tali is just fine." She said, feeling alittle bit out of place.

"Tali it is. You can call me Shepard. Everyone else does. Most of the time." For once, the woman named Ashley finally broke her glare to laugh, followed by smirks growing on Kaidan and Garrus' faces. Wrex stayed in his same stuck up pose. Tali couldn't but smile as well, but not for the same reason. She was smiling because maybe...just maybe...these people would let her come with them. _They're the only ones actually showing me kindness. If I stayed here...I shudder to think what could happen. _

"Shepard, the evidence. We need the evidence." Ashley reminded Shepard, and he immediately snapped out of his trance, as he seemed to have been staring at her. _Staring at me? What's so interesting about me? Its probably nothing. Maybe he's never seen a quarian before. _Shepard nodded, hands behind his back.

"Yes. Tali, we heard you have information that might implicate Saren has a traitor. We were hoping you could shed some light on that." Tali felt like she'd faint at this rate. _Not racist, cares about my opinion and now he's the first one to take me seriously? If only Keenah were here..._Pushing away the images of Keenah's last moments, Tali nodded and pulled out the OSD.

"Yes. I went to Illium, I went to C-Sec, but none of them would listen..." Tali began, but Garrus came to her aid; confusingly. Turians were known for being VERY biased against quarians.

"That's C-Sec for you. I swear they're corrupt. I'm not surprised they didn't listen. Who did you take it to?" Tali looked at the turian, who had a smile on his mandibles.

"Someone named Lieutenant Gyuras I think." The quarian said.

"That racist bastard? Now I'm DEFINITELY not surprised." Garrus immediately returned to his position next to Kaidan upon learning the information he wanted. Shepard nodded and turned to her, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Its okay. We know you've been through alot. Losing your friend, attacked by assassins and now almost being trapped with nowhere to go. I can't imagine what you feel like right now, but we need you to be strong and do what's right. I swear I will find you the best protection on the Citadel, but I need you to tell me what you know. Lifes hang in the balance while this bastard runs on the loose. Your information could help us catch and end him."

Tali looked at Shepard, his eyes gleaming with sincerity. _Meru. Ancestors forgive me for my distrust, for you have sent a yza'rlzz. May you watch my back with loving care, Keelah Se'lai. I love you mum. _Breaking from her mental prayer, she turned back to Shepard and nodded, signalling Shepard to back down.

"I...I have proof that Saren is planning to attack Council space with an armada of geth." Shepard smiled while Ashley seemed to shout 'hell yes!' and the others just grinned, while Wrex remained...big surprise...stuck up. She began wringing her fingers as she held the OSD. _Just give it to them and be on your way. _She began to move towards Shepard when he turned to his squad.

"Everyone into the car." He ordered, and everyone moved inside the car, followed by Shepard himself, who moved back into the driver's seat. Tali simply looked at the back of the car quizzically. _Don't they need my evidence?_

"You coming Tali?" Shepard shouted, waving his hand towards the car for her to get in. Tali simply looked at the OSD and back at the car. Having made her decision, she approached the car and a sheepish grin crossed her features as she sat in the middle, feeling the car lift up and back into the skyway, shooting out towards the Presidium ring.

_My pilgrimage may have just gotten better._

**{Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1556 hours._

_Human Embassy, Citadel Embassies, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Mission Parameters: The quarian has been rescued and Fist left for C-Sec. Wrex has promised to come finish the job while Sergeant Vakarian, under scrutiny from his new commanding officer, has let him go. Evidence is ready for presentation to the Council members._

_Eden Prime War. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Ambassador Donnel Udina, Captain David Edward Anderson._

Marcus smiled at the looks he got from the surrounding civilians. They were surprised to see a N7, two alliance marines, a krogan battlemaster, a turian C-Sec officer and a quarian moving through the streets of the Presidium, but most of them passed dirty looks on Tali, as if she was garbage. Even Ashley seemed alittle bit wearsome of her. _What is wrong with her? She seems nice. _It wasn't long before they finally arrived at the human embassy. Slapping the door control, he saw the door slide open and welcome himself inside.

Udina sat behind his desk, obviously infatuated with his work, while Anderson stood overlooking the Presidium on the balcony. Upon hearing the doors open, Udina and Anderson snapped their looks to Marcus and his squad of badasses, and they immediately approached him.

"You're not making my life easy Shepard. A firefight in Chora's Den? A clinic? Not to mention that you caused damage to corporate property! You crashed cars into the Baria Frontiers building! Do you know how many angry investers come running to me for answers?" Marcus rolled his eyes and saw Anderson grinning at him behind the politician, seemingly finding Udina's anger amusing.

"To be honest, I don't care ambassador. What you should care about is that I found your evidence. Tali, do make yourself known." Udina shifted his look to the quarian, who didn't move. Marcus smiled at her, but the shy quarian didn't even budge. Marcus chuckled lightly. _Why do I find that cute? _Shaking those thoughts from his head he motioned for Kaidan, and he tapped the quarian on the shoulder and she nodded, stepping forward.

"A quarian? What the hell are you up to Shepard?" Udina outbursted, seemingly shocked by a quarian's presence in his embassy.

"Yes sir, a suit-rat." Ashley followed up, which got Tali to snap her head at her. Marcus, confused, finally turned to the woman and asked, "What in _hashem_ is a suit-rat?" Everyone stopped and faced Marcus, seemingly shocked by this turn of events. He met all of their looks, one by one, until he was satisfied he'd found them all. It was Tali who spoke up.

"People are-are not very-kind to my people. We-they-say mean things-about us. We're forced to live as nomads ever since been exiled from our world so, we kind've have to...do whatever we can to survive. We're seen as vermin...which gave birth to...well...the insult 'suit-rat' in my people's language it means, 'Children of the Filth.' Its...highly insulting." He heard a tinge of sadness in the girl's voice, and felt immediately sorry for her. _There must be a basis for this racism. It can't be unwarranted, but this girl surely isn't...a parasite? _

"Then I believe Tali deserves an apology, Gunnery Chief Williams." He shot a glare at the soldier, who looked shocked at him. He fixed the glare so icy cold that Ashley finally, but reluctantly, turned around to the quarian, saying sorry as sincerely as she could before turning to look out a window. Marcus turned to face Udina, but saw Anderson raise a thumbs up in the background.

Udina simply sighed, "So...what does this quarian have for evidence? Or is she just wasting our time?" Marcus ignored Udina's remark, and turned to Tali, motioning for her to activate the information. Tali nodded, inserting the OSD into her omni-tool before bringing it up. A familiar voice rang out through the room.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

Suddenly, a female voice came through as well, "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." Deactivating her omni-tool, Tali turned to look at Marcus, receiving a nod from him, which made her blush for some reason behind her mask. _Why are you blushing woman!? All he did was nod! What is it about this man that is making you act this way! _Tali lowered her look and noticed something she shouldn't. _Cute butt. Keelah you bosh'tet! Stop thinking those things! You can't possibly be suggesting...no no no! Shove that thought aside! Okay...back on track!_

"I didn't recognize that other voice, the one talking about Reapers." Udina stated clearly. It was now Anderson's turn to speak up, the man standing beside Udina.

"But this proves Saren was behind the attack! What confuses me was the Reaper bit. What in the galaxy are Reapers?" Tali immediately jumped up, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. She immediately stop bouncing and explained.

"They were apparently a hyper-advanced machine race that existed fifty thousand years ago. They hunted the protheans to complete extinction, and then they vanished! At least...that's what the geth believe." Everyone nodded with her words, the implications sinking down deep. _If the geth are calling these Reapers gods...well...if Saren wants to bring them back, then we are fucked if we don't do something. _

"Sounds a little farfetched." Udina stated, Marcus finally having to agree with him. But he wasn't ignoring a potential threat. If the Reapers were real, and they probably were, then they had to stop them from...wait, didn't they vanish?

"I thought they vanished?" Marcus asked the quarian, her head turning to him upon hearing his voice.

"The geth revere the Reapers as gods; the pinnacle of synthetic life. And they believe Saren...knows how to bring the Reapers back." Udina made a comical facepalm, while Anderson simply held a shocked expression. Wrex seemed to finally be considering the implications of this and his other crew members looked just as shocked.

"Oh the Council is just going to love this." Udina said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. The truth was, Marcus couldn't blame him for saying so. The Council would probably wet themselves. _Considering they even believe in it. _

"No matter what they think of the rest of this, that recording proves Saren's a traitor! Enough to revoke his spectre status and allow us to finally go after him! Not to mention for the Council to finally sanction the alliance fleet the ability to mobilize. We can't even budge without their consent, bloody politicians." Anderson exclaimed, everyone nodding in agreement.

"Then let's go. We have alot of explaining to do." Udina stated, moving for the door. Before he could however, Tali stepped to Marcus' side. _What are you doing? You might want to join his team but do you really feel safe with him? Yes. But do you think he'll even accept you? Who would want a suit-rat on their team? Yet again, he had shown her kindness...yeah! For the evidence, moron! _She felt an inner battle going on before she finally mustered the courage to ask.

"Commander Shepard, please let me join your team!" She shouted, causing everyone to immediately stand still in surprise. Marcus turned to the quarian and smiled, but immediately lost upon realization.

"I'm afraid not. You see, that's up to Anderson. He's the ship's commanding officer." He pointed towards Anderson, who shook his head in amusement. "Commander, I may run the ship, but you command the ground team. It is YOUR decision who joins your squad, I just run the ship." Marcus beamed brightly at Anderson's revelation, and then turned to the quarian, smiling like a child on Christmas.

"Then welcome aboard, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Welcome to the team. What do you specialize in? I need to know your skill set." Tali carefully pondered Shepard's question as she shook his hand; an odd gesture but accepted nonetheless, no matter how awkward.

"I'm a machinist but also an engineer. I'm good at hacking and I'm profficient with shotguns and pistols." Marcus nodded at her words, before turning to Garrus. Garrus was apparently a sniper and was good with calibrating guns, while Wrex was biotic and, like Tali, preferred close-quarters combat.

"When you're done...organizing your team...we will be waiting for you in the Council Chambers." With that, Udina pushed past the group and left, followed by a more polite Anderson, who smiled at Marcus before leaving.

"I still hate that guy." Ashley stated, allowing everyone a little chuckle. After finally getting skill sets established, Marcus motioned for his team to follow him to the Citadel Tower. _So Tali is a engineer, Garrus a sniper and Wrex a close quarters combatant. That works for me. This squad is a little bit odd, but so what? It feels like it'll be fun. _

It wasn't long before they arrived at the elevator and let a shocked human out of it, before entering and hitting the button for the Council Chambers. The glass door sealed, and he immediately felt as if he was lifting up. The elevator ride took only two minutes, so it wasn't long before they had arrived at the top of the Tower.

_Now time to take this piece of shit down._

**{Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1608 hours._

_Presidium, Council Chambers, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

All was umeasurably silent as the group slowly approached the Council, there heads up high and ready to unleash the evidence upon the politicians, prepared to witness Saren's downfall. He could feel every eye in the room peeled on him, evaluating him; every human, asari, turian, hanar, salarian, elcor, and even keeper, keeping their eyes fixed on this human and his multiracial squad of badasses. This was the moment of truth. Saren was about to be brough to justice, and once done, the Alliance would surely chase after the turian and end his terror before it begins.

He stopped infront of Udina and Anderson, and gave them nods of approval, but he left his squad behind, but motioning Tali to follow him. The quarian did as asked, but she was still a little bit nervous about meeting the galaxy's leaders. _Okay. Calm down, don't hyperventilate! Short, deep breaths! _Tali quickly and quietly followed behind the N7, and found her eyes examining his body again. _What the hell are you doing? Stop doing that, keelah! _As if mentally slapping herself out of her trance, she shot her look to straight ahead and found she was looking at the three councilors; turian, asari, salarian. Sparatus immediately noticed her and gave her a weary look. Tevos seemed completely unfazed while Valern seemed pensive.

"It is very late, Ambassador. I hope you have something worth our time." Sparatus snapped, looking extremely tired for some reason. Tevos and Valern simply nodded in sync, either sucking up to the turian or actually agreeing with him. Udina nodded and motioned for Marcus and Tali to step forward, which they did.

"Yes Councilors. We have proof." Upon Marcus' words, the councilors immediately shot each other looks of apprehension. The Sparatus looked annoyed, Tevos seemed shocked and Valern seemed absolutely curious. Nodding, Marcus motioned for Tali to step forward. Sparatus was having none of it apparently.

"A quarian Shepard? What are you trying to prove by bringing...that in here? Can you not bring the proof without her?" Tali ignored the turian's words, as she knew Shepard would defend her. _Oh, so you know him do you? No, but he saved my life and showed me kindness! Doesn't mean he's going to defend you like some kind of lover. _She was plesantly surprised when, indeed, he did defend her.

"This quarian has a name. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. She is not a thing, or a suit-rat, or a 'that'. She is a woman, a organic being, and you will treat her as such. Not to mention she was out trying to save the galaxy while you were doing...'more important things.'" He punctuated the last sentence with question marks, while Sparatus simply rolled his eyes, letting Tali start. With a reassuring smile, Tali nodded and brought up her omni-tool. Tapping the button for the recording, they all listened intently.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit!" Saren's voice rang out, putting the councilor's in absolute shock, while Sparatus looked angry.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." And that, he noticed very well, froze Tevos. _Why do I have a feeling she knows who the woman is? _With that, Tali deactivated her omni-tool and backed off, Marcus nodding his thanks before turning back to the awaiting Council.

"You wanted proof? Well there it is!" Udina shouted, stepping forward with pride. Marcus simply crossed his arms and waited for the Council's response. They seemed deep in pensive thought, hoping to carefully mouth their words. Finally, Sparatus spoke up.

"This evidence is irrefutable ambassador. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes." The other councilors nodded in agreement. However, this time it was Tevos who spoke this time, her voice full of worry.

"I recognize the other voice. The one speaking with Saren. Matriarch Benezia. Matriarch's are one of the most powerful asari in existence, being very wise and old. Benezia was one of the most powerful and will have many followers, she'll make a formidable ally for Saren."

"I'm more interested in these 'Reapers'. What can you tell us about them?" Valern asked, his voice dripping with curiosity. _Time to drop the bomb. _Marcus turned to Anderson; who in turn nodded and faced the Council, beginning his explanation.

"Only what Tali extracted from the geth's memory core," Anderson said, nodding at said quarian who simply looked at the ground, wringing her fingers, "The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then they vanished, and we believe the geth worship them as gods, the testament to the final evolution of synthetic life."

The councilors seemed to ponder these words, but didn't appear worried in the slightest. It was then that Marcus spoke up.

"We think the Conduit might be the key to bringing them back. Saren's searching for it. That's why he wanted the beacon on Eden Prime." Marcus stated firmly, before hearing Valern's, almost immediate, reaction.

"Do we even know what this Conduit is?" The salarian asked, his hands firmly under his chin. Marcus shook his head.

"Look, if Saren thinks it'll bring back the Reapers, then its definitely a threat." He stated.

"Listen to what you're saying. Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible, it has to be. Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? Why have we found no trace of their existence? If they were real, we would have found something." Sparatus stated, as if trying to convince himself. Marcus couldn't help but agree with some of the facts given, but he wasn't giving up.

"Hey! I tried to warn you about Saren and his geth didn't I? But no, you didn't listen to me! Don't make the same mistake again!" Marcus said, Anderson simply nodding his head while Udina remained in the same stance he had before; crossed arms while staring at the Council.

It was Tevos who spoke up, "This is different. You proved Saren betrayed the Council, we all agree he's using the geth to search for the conduit, but we don't really know why." Valern nodded, exiting his pensive position.

"The Reapers are obviously just a myth commander. A convenient lie to cover his true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the geth to his will." Marcus felt his face redden. _First they ignored the fact that Saren was a traitor and I proved them wrong. Now they're showing even more ignorance! _

"Why can't you understand? The Reapers wiped out all galactic civilization fifty thousand years ago! If Saren finds the Conduit, it will happen again!" Sparatus simply shook his head at Marcus' continued persistence, a wave of his hand as if to dismiss the soldier.

"Saren's a rogue spectre on the run for his life. He no longer has the rights or resources of a Spectre, the Council has stripped him of his position." The other councilors nodded in agreement, and were not prepared for Udina's intervention.

"That's not good enough! You know he's hiding in the Traverse! Send your fleet in!" Udina said, clenching his fist in the air as if to punctuate his words, pure anger shining in the light of the councilor's ignorance.

"A fleet cannot track down one man." Valern stated, bluntly not fazed by Udina's anger.

"The Citadel fleet could secure the entire region. Keep the geth from attacking anymore of our colonies!" Marcus and Anderson nodded in agreement, while Tali simply fazed out of the meeting all together, Marcus giving her a nod. The quarian, seeing she had permission to leave, immediately left, as she had no place in politics.

"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus Systems. We won't be dragged into a galactic confrontation over a few dozen human colonies." Sparatus stated, gaining a glare from Marcus. He really didn't like Sparatus, and now he could see why. Even Udina was more likeable. He couldn't even contain his anger as he spat back.

"Ever time humanity has stepped up and asked for help, you ignored us! You did it at Eden Prime, you did it at Elysium and you're doing it now! I watched good men and women die under my command because you refused to get off your cowardly backsides and do anything!" Marcus shouted, causing the council to back off a little, as if finally fazed by his words. Surprisingly, Udina nodded his head at him, smiling.

"Shepard's right! I'm sick of this Council and its anti-human bullshit!" He roared, pointing an accusing finger at all three members of the Council. Tevos finally raised her hands to bring silence, before throwing glances at Sparatus and Valern as she spoke.

"There is another solution. One that doesn't require fleets...or armies." Tevos said, and Sparatus immediately jumped at the suggestion, his voice full of doubt.

"No! Its too soon! Humanity is not ready to accept the responsibilities that come with joining the Spectres." Marcus knew this had to be about him, and he had to seize his chance. _Being a Spectre will give me alot of privledges. Privledges I could use to bring down that turian bastard and make this galaxy a better place. _Stepping forward to address the Council, Marcus put his hands out to lean on the rail.

"Not ready? Have you really looked at my record? I fought on Eden Prime when noone else would. I took on an entire army of ten thousand batarians single-handedly, and won. And now, I fought an army of geth on Eden Prime while you were here debating. I've earned my place as a Spectre. If you really want to stop Saren, you'll make me one. Because without me, you can label this war as lost." Marcus had basically just handed it to them. Sparatus stood there in pensive thought, while Valern nodded and Tevos smiled at him. The asari and salarian looked at the turian, waiting for his approval. All they got was a frustrated sigh as Sparatus finally nodded.

"Commander Shepard. Step forward." Marcus smiled as he stood up straight, looking directly at the Councilors. Behind him, he noticed his squad had come up to witness the historic event; the first human spectre. On the balconies above were numerous asari, turians, humans, salarians, elcor, hanar, the lot, all watching him.

"It is the decision of the Council that you be granted all the powers and privledges of the Special Tactics and Reconnissance Branch of the Citadel." Tevos finished reciting, as Valern closed his arms, reciting the words.

"Spectres are not trained...but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file." Valern finished, allowing Tevos to continue.

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol, the embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council; instruments of our will." Tevos stated clearly, which allowed Sparatus, however arrogant of the decision, to finish it up.

"Spectres bare a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace. Both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold." Sparatus finished, allowing Tevos to finally congratulate Marcus, who felt completely overwhelmed by his new title; Spectre. _I can get used to that. Spectre. Ha._

"You are the first human spectre, commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species." Tevos finished, smiling. Marcus simply nodded at her, bowing slightly, "I'm honored, Councilor Tevos."

"We're sending you into the traverse after Saren. He's a fugitive from justice so you are authorized to use any means nessacary to apprehend or eliminate him." Valern stated, Marcus nodding. _Eliminate. That guy can't be allowed to escape again. He's just too dangerous. _

"We'll find him. Once again, thank you councilors." Marcus gave one final bow before turning to leave, his squad parting to allow him through. Anderson and Udina followed behind him, while Tevos' voice rang out across the chamber, "This meeting of the Council is adjourned." That is the last he heard of the politicians as he stepped back into the garden area, Anderson slapping him on the back.

"You did it Shepard! First human Spectre! That's one for the history books!" The man said applaudingly, Marcus smiling at his mentor and feeling good for getting such appraise from his superior.

"As a Spectre you know have access to the best weapons money can buy. You'll also need a ship, supplies..." Udina began, but Anderson cut him off, grinning.

"I think I have just the ship. Meet us at the Normandy, commander. We'll get you a ship in no time." Marcus nodded as Anderson and Udina spun on their heels and left, heading straight for a nearby taxi. Turning to his squad, he sighed heavily.

"So...ready to take down a rogue turian spectre and his armies of geth?" Marcus asked.

The reply was immediate. Ashley raised her rifle above her head and shouted 'hell yeah!' Kaidan nodded, smiling as Wrex pounded his fist into his palm. Garrus fiddled with his sniper rifle in a way that meant, 'just let me load my rifle' and Tali shouted something along the lines, 'Keelah Se'lai!'

Marcus smiled at the mishap of aliens on his time, thinking of how odd a bunch they were. _I'm sure they'll learn to work together over the course of this war. _

"Then let's go. We've got a ship to pickup." Marcus turned to leave, but Wrex and Garrus held their hands up, both motioning for him to stop.

"I've got some things to clean up with my C-Sec captain. I'll meet you there Shepard. Don't worry, I ain't running away." Marcus nodded as Garrus walked off, heading for the elevator before Wrex spoke up. "I've got a contract to finish up for my client and then I'll be there. I won't do this for credits, consider my fee completely free." With that, Wrex grinned wickedly before following the turian's movement. Turning to the remaining members of his squad; Tali, Ashley and Kaidan, he motioned for them to follow him to a rapid transit terminal.

_I can see an adventure coming up._

**{Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1623 hours._

_Captain Entricas' Office, C-Sec Headquarters, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian._

Yes, Garrus was going to love this. Telling Entricas to shove it? This was going to be fun on every level. And now that his new commander, not to mention infinitely better, was a Spectre, he could practically shoot Entricas and get away with it. But he wouldn't do that...not as satisfying. Bailey followed closely behind him, hearing the news of his membership on Shepard's crew and could tell from the moment that Garrus entered C-Sec HQ that he was here to sign some resignation papers; with his fist. It was a sight he had to see.

The turian and his human companion weaved through the corridors of the HQ before finally reaching the door to Entricas' office. Clenching his talons into a tight fist, Garrus lightly rapped the door. "Enter" came Entricas' voice, and Garrus hit the button to open while Bailey stood outside, pretending not to be there, winking at the turian as he went in.

"Ah, Vakarian. Yes, what do you want? I'm running on a tight schedule." Garrus smiled as his fist clenched up. Finally lunging out, he hit Entricas across the face, causing the turian to fall back in his chair from the blow, Garrus smiling profusely. Entricas cradled his face like a child being hit by his mother, immediately standing back up to face him, Garrus still grinning like an idiot.

"Consider that my resignation, Entricas." Garrus punctuated, aggravating Entricas who prepared to lash out.

"I can have you charged of insubordination Vakarian, not to mention physical assault of a law enforcement officer!" Garrus laughed long and hard, unable to contain himself and tried to prepare his braggart personality.

"Actually, as I am now part of the crew of a Spectre, I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. Just consider that payback. Goodbye, Entricas, I've got a galaxy to save while you run a 'tight schedule.' Enjoy your dextro donuts, I heard Peterson made them himself! Yummy!" He chuckled at Entricas angry growls as he left the room, door sealing behind him. Looking at Bailey, they both burst out laughing.

"You finally handed it to him you cheeky bastard!" Bailey said, high fiving the turian, or high threeing in the turian's case, and they continued chuckling as they left C-Sec HQ, exiting out onto the streets of the Presidium Commons. Garrus then finally turned to Bailey, and held out a hand to him.

"This is goodbye, Bailey. I've got the oppurtunity of a lifetime here; I can't let my skills got to waste while playing around with idiotic politicians." Bailey immediately took the hand, gripping it strongly as he shook it.

"Everything will be fine without you around, batman. Just make sure to bring back a souvenir or something; like a geth's head? I could use it as a desk lamp." Garrus chuckled and let Bailey return inside before shouting after him, "Keep in Entricas in check!" Bailey simply laughed until the doors closed infront of him, blocking out his laughter. Garrus turned back to the Commons, taking a deep breath through his nostrils.

_This is a new beginning...for all of us._

With that, Garrus headed for the elevator, content with where his life had taken him.

**{Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1623 hours._

_Docking Sector 12, C-Sec Academy, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Ambassador Donnel Udina, Captain David Edward Anderson._

Marcus stood patiently on the elevator as it continued to ascend from the Academy and towards the dock where the Normandy was docked, and where Anderson and Udina would be ready to present him his ship. _I'll have my own to ship to command? What kind of crew? And I was getting to know the Normandy's crew so well...I guess that's the disadvantage of a military life. _He looked around at his squad but his eyes immediately landed on Tali. The suit put an aura on the woman, making her very mysterious.

He continued to think of his military life until he arrived at the docks, stepping out to see Anderson and Udina already waiting at the airlock. He quickly approached them, motioning for his squad to stay behind and chat as he spoke with Udina and Anderson. He quickly saluted Anderson, who reciprocated the gesture.

"So...I'm guessing you found me a ship?" Marcus asked the two men, who gave themselves both a glance before Udina nodded, Anderson turning to Marcus, his face creasing in a smile.

"Indeed we did. I'm resigning my position as captain of the Normandy. She's all yours Shepard." Marcus shot his look at Anderson, who in turn smiled even broader. _Normandy? Mine? He can't be serious! But...well I'm not one to reject such gifts..._

"Are you sure Captain?" He asked, wanting conformation from the man who had mentored him for so long and was now giving his ship away to his former XO. Anderson nodded.

"She's a fine ship and you know the crew. Perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well." Marcus nodded, grinning just as broadly now, "I will sir. Thank you." With that, they stood in awkward silence for a few minutes before Udina broke the silence.

"We have three leads for you that you may want to pursue. We've recently lost contact with our colony on Feros, and we think it may be under attack from the geth. Therum has also dropped off the grid, where we think Liara T'Soni, Benezia's daughter might be. She could help you greatly in finding Saren and her mother. Noveria also has dealings with Saren, and might be a good place to look for clues to his whereabouts."

"Thank you ambassador, I think I'll save Miss T'Soni first, see what she knows. I'm optimistic that she might not be willing to fight for Saren." Marcus stated, nodding at Udina for emphasis.

"This is your mission now Commander, you don't answer to us. We wish you good luck. We'll be here if you need us, but right now we have to return to the embassy, lots of work to do. Good luck, Shepard. Bring that bastard to his knees." With a parting pat on the shoulder, Anderson walked past with Udina and entered the elevator, door closing behind them as the elevator descended.

"So...is...this your...ship?" Tali asked from behind him, and he turned to see Ashley and Kaidan already inside the ship, with Tali behind him, looking him in the eyes. He felt like he was in somekind of trance, but shook it off. "Is now. Captain Anderson gave his ship to me. I guess I should introduce you to the crew. Along with Garrus and Wrex when they get here."

Tali simply nodded, looking at the ground as she spoke, "He just gave you the ship? My people hold our ships in high regard, and it is rare for a captain to part his or her ship. They treat their ships like family. Its a tradition on the fleet." Tali was pleasantly surprised that Marcus didn't interrupt her, and even better, was actually listening to her.

"Oh yeah, the Migrant Fleet or 'Flotilla'. I feel sorry for your people. Maybe this war will get you your homeworld back? Either way, I'm glad to have you on my team. Maybe you can teach me more about the flotilla later? It sounds very interesting." Tali almost bounced in joy at his sudden acceptance of her. _He's actually willing to listen to me? This has to be a dream. Has to be..._

"Thank you Commander, I...appreciate it." Tali said, smiling behind her mask.

"Please Tali, remember this. Its just Shepard. I don't need people going all formal on me. Now come on, Mr. Dinosaur and Big And Ugly will be here in a minute." Marcus motioned for Tali to follow him towards the airlock, and the young machinist fell in line behind him to get a few of his butt. _Wow, Tali. You think that since he's nice to you that you all of a sudden have a crush on the man? That's childish! This man will only see as a friend and nothing else! Now shove those thoughts aside! _Mentally kicking away the thoughts, she stepped into the airlock behind Marcus just as Garrus and Wrex ran inside.

"Well, I think its time you met the crew." Marcus stated.

And with that, the mishap of aliens went on a journey that none of them knew would eventually make them family.

**"'Above the law and beyond' is how you'd describe the spectres?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Sure is. And then man sure took alot of liberties. You'd think the man was a saint, the things he did. Anyway, back on track. The Normandy, it was his now and he began introducing the crew. I think this is where the crew bondings really started to take shape. That and the gossip about our first mission to Therum."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**


	9. Chapter 7 Jokes, Laughter and a Quarian

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER SEVEN:**

**JOKES, LAUGHTER AND A STUTTERY QUARIAN**

_**Author's Notes: **_

_**I don't know if you know this, but I just learned that Robin Sachs, the voice actor for Zaeed Massani, has just passed away in his home on Friday, at age 62. Tribute to him. **_

_**Keelah Se'lai.**_

_**Just thought you should know that. Now, back to the story!**_

_June 16, 2183_

_1626 hours._

_Cockpit, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Docked with the Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau, Ex-Detective Sergeant Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. _

As soon as Tali exited the decontamination chamber, she was simply amazed the ship she had walked into. During Shepard's speech, she had simply examined the ship, detail by detail, and was impressed by how advanced the ship was. It was apparently a joint human-turian design, and they certainly didn't mess around in making sure it was fully equipped. It was obvious this deck was the CIC, as the cockpit was to the left of the airlock, while the right had a flight deck that descended into a seperate area with a galaxy map, briefing room and stairs going to the second deck.

She, however, had heard all of Shepard's speech, and was impressed by the human's ability to make such motivational speeches. It was like the man was born to be what he was, and at times it felt like he was a natural speaker; always knowing what words to use to motivate people. When Shepard's speech ended, she felt the ship disconnect from the Citadel docks and lift off, speeding towards the Widow Relay as they began their journey and left the colossal Citadel behind.

"That was one hell of a speech, Shepard. Really got my blood pumping." Garrus announced, seemingly flexing his turian muscles as he spoke. Wrex nodded in agreement at the turian's statement, but kept his firm glare on him. Tali shook her head at the mortal enemies, before noticing Marcus signalling them to move into the cockpit. Tali did so without question, while Garrus and Wrex hesitated for a moment before following.

Seeing everyone inside, Marcus motioned towards the pilot of the ship, who was looking at them with wide eyes. "This is our pilot. His real name is Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, but the crew call him Joker. Be wise to call him that, you have no idea how much it suits him." Garrus chuckled while Wrex shrugged. Tali did nothing.

"Come on commander, this ship isn't a zoo! And a turian and krogan on the ship is a hull breach waiting to happen. The quarian though? Damn, never imagined you'd bring one of them. What's next? Blasto the Hanar Spectre? An asari commando? Or maybe, just maybe, you'll somehow recruit a geth! I'm getting overoptimistic aren't I?" Marcus shook his head at Joker's antics while smiling.

"Joker, these are my latest squad members" Marcus proceeded to introduce each and everyone of them, while Joker shook each of their hands.

"So, what's our first destination, commander?" Joker asked, looking at the commander, "You are the ship's new commanding officer now." Marcus nodded while remembering his options. _Feros. Therum. Noveria. _He ran through the options in his mind, trying to find the most logical first route. After a few more minutes, he finally turned to Joker.

"Set a course for the Artemis Tau Cluster, Knossos System. Inform me once you're in system and set a course for Therum. We have an asari to rescue. Meanwhile, I've got to assign you three your quarters and working areas. Follow me." The last bit was obviously directed at his three newest squad additions, and they immediately followed him down the flight deck and towards the door on the left leading to the crew deck. By this time they had already passed through the Widow Relay and were already well on their way to Therum.

It wasn't long before they emerged onto the crew deck and Marcus showed them their assigned sleeper pods; Garrus apparently got Marcus' old sleeper pod, while Wrex got a overly large one at the back and Tali one just across from Garrus. After leaving their pods, they headed for the mess hall, passing Kaidan on the way as he worked at a control panel next to the leftside lockers. Marcus then immediately stopped at the mess hall table, turning to face them.

"So...where do you wish to work?" He asked them, and all of them entered pensive thought, including Tali after shock at the suggestion. _Its obvious where I want to be. Where I'M best at. _She waited for Garrus and Wrex first though.

"I calibrate guns, but since the Normandy's gun controls are unaccessible I think I'll settle with a vehicle to work on. You do have one right?" Garrus asked Marcus, who simply smirked. "Have one? We only have a Mako that takes up a quarter of the cargo bay. So, what about you Wrex?"

"I shoot things, that's it. A corner will do." Wrex barely got out; most of his words gumbled by a grunting sound. Marcus simply nodded before turning to Tali. "As a engineer, I'd figure engineering would be the best place to put you Tali." Tali looked at him and smiled. _Of course he'd point that out. Engineers work in engine rooms. _"Yes sir." She muttered, but it was loud enough for Marcus to hear it at least.

"Deck three it is then. Follow me." They all nodded without answering, following their commander into the elevator as it began its boring descent. _Even elevators on the Rayya and Huzzi are faster than this. _Those thoughts were thrown away as the door finally opened, introducing them to a dark cargo bay with a armoury to the left where Ashley, unarmored and wearing a grey alliance casual shirt and pants, was working, a Mako to the right and an Alliance requisitions officer.

"I think I'll take this corner right here." Wrex stated, heading over to a crate only 2 meters to the left of the armoury, the large krogan leaning on the wall and equipping his Solokov, before getting out a fine white cloth, brown with grime, and began rubbing his shotgun as if to clean it. Marcus nodded before moving over to the Mako, motioning for Garrus to take his spot at the terminal.

"Wow...this Mako is really behind in performance. Alot of things to upgrade. I think I'll be hooked for the next couple of days. Thank you commander, I'm glad you let me work on this team." Garrus said hurriedly, before getting straight to work on the terminal, his three fingered talons dancing across the interface. Marcus simply smiled, heading straight for a door at the back, Tali in tow. _Must be taking me to engineering-_

She never finished as she watched herself emerge into the Normandy's engine room, and she swore she felt her jaw drop to the bottom of her mask. Right before her was possibly the largest drive core she had ever seen. It glowed, spun and pulsed with blue energy, its light ever abundant. It was a marvel of technology, something that completely outclassed any ship in the Migrant Fleet. _This ship truly is state-of-the-art. _

"What is-" She never finished her question as another voice answered for her, creeping up to meet her and Shepard.

"The Tantalus Drive Core, an impressive piece of tech, the commander will tell you that, but judging by your posture, you already think that." Tali turned to look at the man, who was wearing full alliance uniform, her translators translating the words on his nametag as 'Chief Engineer'.

"Chief Engineer Adams, this is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, she's an engineer and a recent addition to our crew. Tali, this is Chief Engineer Gregory Adams, he will be your commanding officer while you working down here. He answers to you, and don't follow my orders when I work in here, as I'm a idiot when it comes to engineering." Tali lightly laughed at that and Adams chuckled, before turning back to Tali.

"So, Miss Zorah, welcome to the Normandy. I'll introduce you to the engineering crew and then find you a terminal. Oh, and the commander probably hasn't told you yet, but you need to put your belongings in the lockers next to the Armoury." Adams looked at Marcus expectingly, and he sheepishly smiled, scratching the back of his neck.

"Oh right, forgot about that. I'll show you your locker. Lucky for you, you get one right next to me! Oh what an honor it is to be placed next to your idiotic commander!" Marcus remarked sarcastically, beforel leading Tali out of engineering, with Adams eagerly awaiting their return. After being shown her locker, followed by Garrus and Wrex, Marcus had returned with her to engineering and waited for Adams to introduce her to the engineering staff and assign her a spot, before approaching her.

"So Tali, you getting along well with the other crewmembers?" Tali almost jumped when Marcus spoke up to her, clearly not realizing he had approached her. Turning around she nodded, "Yes, surprisingly. I expected many of them to be hostile towards me, but none of them did at all; well, two of them did but Adams defended me immediately! To work on a ship like this!? Its so advanced! Its like a dream come true for me!" Tali finished with an energy he hadn't seen in her before, and to him he found it pretty cute.

"Glad to see you're getting the heart of it. I can't wait to see what you can do in combat." Tali immediately froze at that, seemingly looking for an excuse to drop the subject. Finding none, she sighed and turned back to him, "I...kinda don't have...well, C-Sec confiscated all my weapons so I'm...kinda useless right now except for on the ship," Marcus nodded with understanding, but before he could speak, Tali beat him to it, "I've got enough credits from Han, that's my father's friend, to buy myself another Katana shotgun."

Marcus laughed loudly, "A katana? No Tali, we can't have you buying those! You need better weapons that. Let me place an order with the requisitions officer for something better, like my Armageddon model. I'll also place an order for a new pistol, or an omni-tool if you like. I've seen yours, and your Blue Wire model probably does need replacement." Tali widened her eyes at his suggestion, not wanting to be a waste of resources.

"No no no! You don't need to waste so many credits on someone like me! I'll live with..." Marcus raised a hand before she could finish, causing her to stop.

"Tali...the Alliance AND Council are funding this mission. We'll have plenty of credits to spend, and I need to make sure my team is in tip top shape. You can't go off fighting Saren and the geth with a katana. Or a Blue Wire. You need state of the art tech, and that's what you'll be getting. Don't be so selfless." He smiled warmly at her, which made her feel warm inside. _Oh Keelah, not again. Ancestors be blessed for these masks. If he saw my face right now...I dread to think what would happen. _

"You're right, Shepard. I'm sorry, but its a natural part of being quarian. If we don't stop thinking about others people could get hurt, maybe even killed. That's why we are so selfless. I will try not to be in the future." Marcus widened his eyes and shook his head, confusing the quarian, who cocked her head in confusion.

"No no no! Don't do that! Doing that would destroy who you are. I like people who are selfless. It means they are not willing to put their own life ahead of others. Willing to sacrifice their lives for others. I know you won't have to do that, I sure hope you won't, but it makes you strong. Don't ever change who you are Tali, no matter who asks you to." The entire time he held an arm on her shoulder, her body seeming to flinch at his touch. _Stop. Over. Exaggerating! He's just touching your shoulder! Its not like he's gripping your..._

"Egh!" She left out, causing Marcus to real back in confusion.

"What? Did I say something wrong? Did I insult you somehow?" Marcus asked in rapidfire, conscious of the fact that he may have offended the quarian.

"What? No! No its not like that! Its...Its...nothing! Nothing at all! Its not like I was imagining you gripping my...my...um...omni-tool! That's right!" She returned in even worse rapidfire, almost tripping over her words. An awkward silence followed before Marcus broke the silence, smiling before moving to lean against a nearby console.

"So...apart from that awkward turn of events, I'd like to learn more about the Flotilla." Tali sighed and laughed, before shaking her head, "You don't want to listen to me. I just blabber on and on and on. You'll get bored to death. I'm not very interesting to talk with." It was half-true. Only Shala and Kal had really listened to her talk, and if Prazza could be counted as someone to have a constructive conversation with then she'd be damned. She didn't really know what to think of Peta. Like Kal she had grown up with him and become an engineer with him while Kal joined the marines.

Peta creeped her out though. It was obvious he had been making moves on her, even going as far to ask her out to 'dinner', which to quarians was eating rations in the other person's quarters, before going out on pilgrimage which to no regret, she rejected. It was no lie that Peta was alittle bit creepy. Everytime she talked with the quarian his eyes always fell towards her breasts or at times, her butt or even her hips, which made her roll her eyes. Of course, that was just how men were, but Peta was different. She could almost feel like he was unsuiting her with his mind. It put chills down her spine.

She wanted nothing to do with Peta, but he wanted everything to do with her. If it hadn't been for Shala's timely arrival, Peta probably would have said something like 'I love you' or 'I want to bond with you' to which it was traditional to immediately accept. Not doing so would be considered sacrilege and frowned upon, but not punished.

"Not very interesting? I wouldn't say that. Besides, your voice is...relaxing. I can feel tired and your voice would be probably make me feel calmer. Its...amazing. I could go as far to say 'its sexy', but I won't do that as for one, you wouldn't like it, and two, its not very professional. So I'll stick with amazing and calming." Tali practically froze to the spot upon his compliment, having no idea what to say. _Did he just call my accent relaxing? Keelah, change of subject, like, right now! Do something you stupid girl before you do something you regret._

"Well...what do you want to know?" She asked, sighing mentally.

"Anything. I want to get to know my crew so how about...life on the Flotilla? What's it like living in a fleet of ships as nomads?" Marcus asked, still leaning against the console in full body armor as he leaned in closely to listen.

_This human is...unusual. He's nice, charming...dashing. Handsome, brave, strong, respectful...sexy. No! No! How do I keep ending up here? Dashing? Handsome and then I come up with sexy? Stop thinking these things you silly girl! _Smiling, she began to tell her story.

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_June 16, 2183_

_1740 hours._

_Captain's Quarters, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Artemis Tau Cluster._

_Eden Prime War. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard_

Sighing as he hit the door opening mechanism, he watched the doors slide to open up into what once was Anderson's quarters; now his. The room was simple in design, with a single king-sized double bed at the back, with a single desk to the right of it, accompanied by a sink and a mirror. A shower cubicle existed next to the bed while a single table sat in the middle, a blue light illuminating the room. A closet also sat infront of the shower cubicle, with sliding doors and an electronic locking mechanism.

He had shared a hour long conversation with Tali about the migrant fleet, after which she asked if she could begin her duties, to which he allowed, retreating to his quarters only after making small chat with Wrex, Ashley and Garrus. He even had a short talk with Kaidan and a passing Doctor Chakwas before finally retiring to his quarters, deciding to get a look at the place he'd be sleeping in for the rest of his journey, and probably the rest of his career.

Placing his duffel bag on his table, he began removing his armor piece by piece, finishing with his helmet as he placed it in the closet, grabbing a single T-shirt and pants, ignoring the alliance formal wear that was in there. He rather wouldn't be walking around with 'I run this shit' written all over his uniform. It didn't suit his personality.

He finally emptied his duffel bag, which mostly contained simple stuff; his armageddon shotgun, his diamond back assault rifle, his newly acquired punisher sniper rifle with Jenkins scratched into the outer casing by himself, his raikou pistol which had proved handy, his L3 implant painreducers, three packets of personal first aid medi-gel, three of his favourite war novels and a few other personal possessions which he quickly placed around the room.

Feeling drained, Marcus immediately collapsed into his bed, surprised to find it extremely comfortable. _More comfortable then those damn sleeper pods, that's for sure. I feel sorry for the others, having to live with those things while the captain gets all these...luxuries. _He then imagined if things were different and he was a quarian captain. _From what Tali told me, I'd be like the rest of the crew; small quarters. That's good, it lets the crew know that the captain is there equal. Here I feel like I'm being a braggart over rank._

He tried to find sleep, but sleep didn't find him. He tossed and turned, he messed with the temperture turning it from cold to hot, and he tried to read himself to sleep. Nothing worked. Finally giving up on sleep, he strode towards the door and exited into the mess hall, deciding to catch dinner while it was ready. It was only now that he realized no kitchen facilities were present, and only a bench next to the table which served rations was the source of food.

_Fantastic. Food rations, the disgrace of food. This'll be yummy. _Letting his mental sarcasm drift away, he grabbed two nutrient bars and sat down at the table with two other officers, forcing himself to eat the disgusting bars of food. _Tastes and looks like the shit they give you at prison. I would know because I spent two days at one of them after Eden Prime. What a hellhole._ After swallowing a large chunk of the bar, he heard footsteps approach before he saw Pressly sit down opposite him.

He then realized that Pressly wasn't eating anything but staring at him with a stern look. "Commander, could I speak with you about something?" The navigator finally asked, confirming Marcus' thoughts. Happy to find something to do that didn't involve the consumption of food that tasted like chicken poo, he smiled and looked at Pressly, throwing both nutrient bars into the nearby bin.

"Yes Pressly? What can I do for you?"

"Actually, its what you can tell me. Why are aliens on the ship? A krogan? A turian? A quarian!? What are you thinking bringing them onboard an advanced alliance ship, not excluding the fact that they have access to our systems! This isn't a zoo, you can't just let non-humans wonder aboard whenever they please! Get them off the ship!" Pressly demanded, slamming his fist into the table for emphasis.

"Excuse me Pressly? Did I hear you right? Do you have trouble with my choice of crew? Or is it because they aren't human?" Marcus snapped. Pressly flinched at Marcus' harsh retort, but he was having none of this second guessing on HIS ship. He would have none of it. Any thought of racism in his opinion would die or be tossed overboard.

"Yes. I have concerns..." Pressly began.

"You don't trust me to make the right decisions? Is that it?" Marcus asked.

"No! I question your choice of crew! You can't let a turian or krogan wander around the ship! And letting a quarian have access to classified military engineering equipment? What if she steals it? You know what quarians are like! She could be sending parts to her fleet right now for all we know!" Pressly shouted, letting his racism get ahold over him.

"Thief this, thief that. She's going to steal this, she's going to steal that. Pressly, you listen VERY closely, cause I'm not going to repeat myself," Marcus stated with a venom in his voice he thought he'd never utter, leaning closer to the navigator.

"I'm sick and tired of racism. We had enough of it back on Earth, and we don't need it being brought to the galaxy! We are here to work together! Tali wants to work with us and she's the most selfless person on this ship that I've met so far! Wrex won't be a problem and Garrus is completely trustworthy! If I so much as hear that you've been harassing any of them I will have you removed from my ship. You either get with the program or leave, understood? But I will not let racism compromise this mission." Pressly eyed Marcus with fear as he felt the venom disappear from his voice as he leaned back into his seat.

"Yes-Yes, sorry commander. I'll-I'll return to my station." Pressly immediately leapt up and left the room, not even bothering to look behind him or stop. Marcus just shook his head before reaching over and grabbing a can of beer. _That's it! I thought I'd forgotten something! I've got to get some more dextro rations. We had some while Nihlus was here but there won't be enough for Tali AND Garrus to share. Also need to look at purchasing more weapons. _

Uncapping his beer and taking a sip, he moved towards the elevator and hit the descend button, waiting for it to arrive at the cargo deck. It wasn't long before the elevator finally came to a stop, the door sliding open to allow Marcus to walk out and approach the officer, who's name he still didn't know.

"Hello Commander, what can I do for you?" The officer briskly saluted Marcus as he stopped, Marcus returning the salute before returning to his casual pose.

"Yes, I'd like to purchase some weapons. First off, I need a name." Marcus stated and the officer lifted his head in realization as he smiled and shook his head.

"Yes! Sorry about that sir, my name is Petty Officer Second Class Frederick D. Johnson. You can just call me Fred sir, or Officer Johnson. The others do." Marcus nodded, smiling at the man's similiar situation to the one he shared on the Citadel with Tali, he immediately returned to the present and looked at the man.

"Yes. Fred it is. Now, I'd like to purchase some high-grade weaponry. Mostly shotguns and omni-tools." Fred nodded, bringing up what looked like a military extranet exchange site on his terminal, then turning to look at his commander, waiting for his order.

"Would you be interested in HMWSG Shotgun sir? Latest, state-of-the-art weaponry sir. Available only to Spectres for about a year. You get a discount on the overall pricing. You can get a basic, advanced or master model, but I strongly suggest Master if you're going for heavy firepower." Marcus seemed interested. _Only for Spectres for a short time? Spectre weapons are guaranteed to be good._

"I'm interested. What's the price?"

"Ten thousand credits. And that's with the 60% discount." Fred answered and Marcus gaped his mouth open and almost half-heartedly chuckled, nodding as he did.

"I'll take it. Also, what kind of omni-tools do you sell? Any that don't involve those terrible Blue Wires?" Marcus asked, Fred searching through his vast category of available stock. Finally finding what he wanted, he looked up to answer.

"Yes we do sir. We have Logic Arrest, Nexus, Polaris, Savant, Chameleon, Cipher and lucky for you, the latest in omni-tool technology with Spectre only HMOT omni-tools, with basic, advanced and master models. Which would you like sir?"

"Purchase six of the HMOT Master models, I want everyone on my squad equipped. Also place an order for that HMWSG Master Shotgun as well." With a final salute, he turned back to the elevator and entered it, hitting button to begin its ascent. It wasn't long before he was back on the crew deck and he decided to take a hot shower.

_Boy do I need it._

**{Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183 (Translated Khelish Time)_

_1744 hours._

_Engineering, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Artemis Tau Cluster._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Chief Engineer Gregory Adams._

It had only been a few minutes since Shepard had left, and she felt better already. Adams had been very impressed by her engineering skills, and the first task he had given her was repairing a combustion manifold. He almost choked when she reported back to him in under a minute, and she had been doing minute tasks ever since. Adams had been so impressed by talents that he went as far as to say, 'you're amazing! You know more about the Normandy than half my staff do! Give you a month and you'll no more about this ship then even I do! Excellent work, I think you're more than ready to start dealing with heavy tasks, don't you think?'

She smiled at the thought and at her chance to work with her fellow crew; they may not be quarians, but they were just as social and were very kind towards her. Sighing in excitement, she finished writing up her email to her father, quickly reading over it.

_To: Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Huzzi_

_From: Pilgrim Tali'Zorah nar Rayya_

_Subject: My pilgrimage_

_Father! You won't believe where I find myself! When me and Keenah began my pilgrimage, we disabled a geth's memory core and discovered the geth are planning to invade Council space! After a long time of searching and Keenah's...unfortunate sacrifice, I managed to warn the Council and now I'm serving on the most advanced human warship in existence! This is so exciting! _

_I definitely won't fail you father, I plan to make you proud. And tell Shala I'm safe and she can stop worrying, you know what she's like. _

_Keelah Se'lai._

_From: Your daughter, Tali._

_To: Rael'Zorah vas Huzzi_

Smiling, she hit the send button on her omni-tool before heading back into her work; upgrading the dampeners for the engine core. Before she could start running the numbers however, Adams' voice sounded behind her.

"Since your new to the crew, I'm giving you a half an hour shift break. Be back down here by 1814, on the dot, Tali. Take a rest, you definitely earned it." She turned to Adams to reject, but he held a hand out before she could.

"No buts. I know you love your job, but even quarians have to take breaks, am I right? And don't lecture me about fleet survival because let's face it; quarians would die of exhaustion before their ship blew up in their face." If he had been talking to her father, he would have punched the engineer, but Tali simply giggled.

"I suppose your right, Adams. I mean sir!" Tali immediately tried to mimick the human 'hand to the forehead' gesture, which was apparently what humans called a 'salute' and was a way of recognizing a higher ranking officer. Adams shook his head, causing Tali to drop her hand.

"Enough of this sir stuff. I'm too old for that. Its just Adams to you, Greg to family. You're obvious not family, no offense, so you can call me Adams or if you insist, Engineer Adams at least." Tali nodded and shook Adams' hand before leaving the room and moving to step in the elevator. She didn't get very far when Wrex's voice sounded behind her.

"So the suitted worm has finally come out from her hole." Tali spun her heel to face the krogan, who appeared to be content with standing in the corner. He had abandoned this and started approaching the quarian machinist.

"Insults will get you no where krogan, leave me alone." She prepared to move back to the elevator, but Wrex suddenly stopped, a grin creasing his features.

"Fiesty are we? Ha! You're just like all women! Looking for a fight they can't win! Intimidating me won't work kiddo, so why don't you quit? And use my name!" Wrex shouted, Tali hearing what she thought must have been comedy in his voice. _Maybe he's not as glum as I thought he was._

"You didn't use mine, you called me a worm. I don't take threats easily." Tali's training immediately kicked in, with Kal's training on how to negoitate with krogan sparking into life. She remembered his words easily.

_"Now comes the krogan. You probably won't see many of them where you're going ma'am, but its a good idea to make sure you don't seem weak. Show them your strength, intimidate them and put on a show of force. Krogan like strength, they love honor. If they see you as being strong, fierce and resourceful, they'll see you as someone to be respected and leave you alone. Now don't question me on this, cause I've dealt enough with the bosh'tets to know what they're like."_

Tali focused her best glare on the krogan, even though he couldn't see it, and she tried to look as strong as possible, but she felt her legs on the verge of shaking. _He decides I'm weak and I become varren meat. That shotgun will blow me into a pulp. _After what seemed like a century, the krogan burst out into laughter.

"I like this one! I barely know you and I already like you! You have spunk kiddo! Say what, you seem like the shotgun kind, why don't I make you a warrior with some training?" Wrex's tone seemed playful and serious at the same time. _Is this krogan a new breed or something? Or has he spent too much time around humans? _She slowly nodded and watched as Wrex unhatched his solokov. Waiting for the shot to impact, she simply felt it drop into her arms.

"Try it on the turian." Wrex motioned his head towards Garrus, who, oblivious to the events happening behind him, continued working on his terminal. Tali widened her eyes at the idea.

"You want me to kill Garrus? But he's on the same side!" Tali whispered to the krogan, who shook his head. Before he could explain though, Garrus' voice popped up from infront of them.

"You do realize I can hear you two right? We turians have hearing like shatha." They watched as Garrus approached them, a grin planted firmly on his mandibles. Tali rolled her eyes while Wrex grumbled and took his shotgun from Tali's arms, motioning for her to follow him down the cargo bay. Surprisingly, Garrus tagged along.

"A krogan giving a quarian combat training? I have to see this." Garrus said from behind her back, but she ignored the turian and just followed Wrex until they were at the end of the bay, just at the Mako's front. Wrex once again thrusted his solokov into the quarian's arms and pointed towards a smudge of paint on the door.

"Shoot it." Wrex ordered.

"That's a piece of paint Wrex. That's a shotgun, not a marksman rifle." Garrus stated a matter-of-factly. She snorted, but then realized, as a sniping professional, Garrus of all people would be an expert in that sector and held her mouth against any retorts.

"You think I don't realize that stupid turian? I'm telling her to shoot it! I want to know how good her aim is! Now shoot the damn thing!" Tali nodded and carefully aimed the heavy shotgun at the piece of paint, angling it perfectly. _Ancestors bless you Kal, I'm about to impress a krogan. _With a wide smile on her face, she squeezed the trigger and felt the hot metal slug exit the barrel and hit the paint dead center, leaving a large dent in the door.

"Hey! That's Alliance property, you aliens can't just go around shooting it up!" Tali turned to see Chief Williams looking at them as if they had killed her family, her glare full of venom as it looked over them. Wrex simply huffed.

"Stop your whining human, its a barely noticable dent. I heard your a soldier, I don't think so though." Wrex immediately approached Ashley attempting to kick her, but the marine swiftly dodged it and punched Wrex square across the face. It was now that Garrus moved in and lunged a punch, but Ashley simply grabbed it. Without hesitation, Garrus kneed her in the chest and then threw her over his back, allowing him to move ontop of her.

"Get off me dino! GET OFF ME!" Garrus did as asked, and got up, offering a three-fingered talon to help her up, but found it arrogantly ignored out of pride and the female got back up and returned to her posting. Garrus looked smug as he muttered, "Hey, I can't help being turian. War runs in my blood." Before Tali could return to her training, the pilot's voice rang out.

"Attention, ladies and gentlemen! Commander Lancelot has called for a knights of the round table in the debriefing room, immediately! I repeat, immediately! We are a day out from Knossos, Joker out." Tali looked confused at the comm, while Garrus and Wrex mirrored her expression. They turned to ask Ashley, as it seemed to be a human thing, but she was already gone, elevator door closing behind her.

"I guess we're waiting. Although I can't wait to find out what the commander has planned for us. Lancelot? Knights of the round table?" Tali asked, causing Wrex and Garrus to laugh. _A krogan and turian laughing at the same thing? I did not just hear that. _As if reading her thoughts, Garrus cleared his throat and stopped laughing, with Wrex giving off a exaggerated grunt as he brushed past Garrus towards the elevator, while Garrus simply followed behind him, followed by the spunky quarian.

_A stuttery quarian, a comedic krogan and a friendly turian. Now I've seen everything._

...

"But you hadn't had you? You hadn't seen everything!" Jason shouting, barely keeping in his amusement as everyone laughed. Tali laughed at the memories as well, finding them emotionally crippling but funny at the same time.

"I soon regretted thinking that." Tali stated, before continuing her story.

**{Loading...}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1750 hours._

_Debriefing Room, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, in FTL inbound for Artemis Tau Cluster._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

The room was relatively silent except for the sounds of Kaidan and Ashley chatting and Marcus sat inbetween them listening in. He sat on the left side of the room in the second last chair, while Kaidan sat to his left and Ashley to his right. They chatted back and forth about casual things and inbetween it all, about the upcoming mission. Marcus simply listened in, not contributing to the growing conversation.

It wasn't long before the rest of the team began moving inside, taking positions on the other side. Wrex sat awkwardly in the chair closest to the door, while Tali sat on the one closest to the viewscreen while Garrus sat next to her. Marcus immediately stood up and approached the center of the room, causing all conversation in the room to cease as eyes laid on him.

"As you all know, we are heading to the Knossos system to pick up someone who could be valuable in tracking down Saren. The information we have is sketchy at best, but its confirmed that the asari we are looking for, Liara T'Soni, is the daughter of Saren's second-in-command, Matriarch Benezia. We believe the geth are moving in to either protect her...or capture her. Either, she may know something about Saren's whereabouts and operations."

"Whoever she is commander, I doubt she can be trusted. Benezia has probably got her on a leash." Ashley stated coldly, Kaidan giving her a glare while Marcus simply shrugged her accusation off, continuing, "That's something we can't confirm until we get her onboard. Our mission is to land on Therum and extract her quickly before the geth get to her. If they do, then we'll kill them before they can leave."

"Destroy them. We destroy them. Geth aren't alive, so they can't be killed." Tali pointed, Marcus conceding to her point with a nod before turning back to the group.

"I'm going in with a full team, which means all of you are coming with me. We'll drop down in the Mako and clear up any ground forces first. We can't risk dropping directly inside the mission zone, so we'll be dropping two klicks north of it and proceed from there. We'll mop them up and then get T'Soni out of there. By no means are we to kill her until she can be confirmed as hostile. If she isn't, we'll extract her to the Normandy and see what she knows. I want this to be quick and clean. This'll be our first real deployment together so I hope you're _all _ready to accept my command."

Everyone nodded, with Ashley laying back in her seat while everyone else entered talk about the mission.

"Any questions?" Marcus asked, stirring everyone from their second round of conversations. Noone raised their hands until Wrex seemingly yelled out.

"Do we know what kind if enemy we are facing?" Marcus nodded, but turned to Tali for her to explain. She didn't seem to notice until he said her name, causing her to look at him. "Yes?" she asked, and he immediately explained Wrex's question. Without even answering Marcus, she turned to Wrex and began her explanation.

"They're geth. They spare no mercy, take no pain and don't understand emotion. They do not care about their fellow platforms, they do not care about anything except killing you. They slaughtered my people in droves during the morning war and never got tired. They are logical, emotionless, cold machines. They do not hesitate in pulling the trigger. They do not need rest, and they work with cold effiency no organic can match. They are the ultimate killing machine Wrex, and some of them can easily match the strength of a krogan. So Wrex, you ask what enemy we face? We face an enemy unlike anything you've faced before."

"Well said Tali. I fought those things on Eden Prime, and as Tali said, they're unrelenting. Don't underestimate them whatever you do. That goes for all of you. With the Mako they should be easy, but once we go on foot, keep your eyes peeled and guard up. I'd rather keep you guys alive. I've already lost one under my command lest then a few days ago, I refuse to lose anymore." Marcus looked at the ground as he finished, but slowly shook away his melancholy and turned back to the group.

"Any more questions?" He asked, but this time noone answered. "Very well. Meet me in the cargo hold at 1200 hours tomorrow anyone has further questions, I'll be in my quarters. Crew dismissed." Everyone nodded and left, Kaidan and Ashley stopping to salute him before leaving. Marcus immediately followed behind them, stepping down the right stairs and towards his cabin.

Once inside he sat behind his desk and began working out how to take care of T'Soni. _I don't want to kill her, but if she leaves me no choice..._But Marcus had always found another way, another option to solve problems. But he wasn't perfect either, and there would come a time where he'd finally have to admit defeat.

After attempting multiple ways of dealing with the asari, he finally gave up and retreated to his bed, falling face first into its soft blankets. It wasn't long before he found himself drifting to sleep, and even less when he woke up again, a single knock on the door. _Could use the bell. _"Enter" he said half-sleepily, dragging himself from the covers and moving to sit on the edge of the mattress.

The door slid open to reveal Ashley, who quickly entered his cabin and stood at attention as the door closed behind her. "Chief Williams sir, requesting permission to speak my mind sir." Ashley stated formally, her stare at the wall unwavering as she waited for her commander to put her at ease. All she got was a chuckle, and she forced herself to look at the source which was, surprisingly, Shepard himself.

"Let's get some things straight. One, refer to yourself as Williams or Ashley, don't pull rank on me. Two, stop with 'sir', its just Shepard to everyone. Three, don't ever ask permission to speak. Just do it, I'm not superior to you and I sure as hell am not going to abuse my authority. That's an order. Now, speak your mind." Marcus simply stood up from his bed and sat on his desk, arms crossed as he looked across the room at the gunnery chief.

"Um...okay sir...I mean Shepard." Marcus motioned for her to take a seat, but she insisted on standing and spoke, "I have concerns about the alien crew." She noticed Marcus roll his eyes at her, which made her angry without a doubt. _Let's me speak and then treats my opinion like shit?_

"I've been over this with Pressly already..." Marcus didn't get to finish as Ashley immediately cut back in.

"Aliens though! You're letting a turian, the bastards who murdered good soldiers on Shanxi, have access to our weapons! You're letting a krogan onboard the ship and you're letting a quarian, a beggar and a thief, gain access to engineering! What's next, we welcome T'Soni onboard and tell her she can give us medical examinations!?"

"STAND DOWN AND SIT DOWN!" Marcus boomed, causing Ashley to jump almost a full meter. Gone was the kind hearted commander she had come to get to know and standing before her was a soldier-to-the-bone, heart of a drill instructor, commander who had earned his way through the ranks. She had almost forgotten that he hadn't become a commander by flirting with his superiors; he had killed, destroyed and impressed his way through the command chain.

Ashley did as she was told, sitting down on a seat nearby. Marcus leapt off the desk and leaned down near her, his voice ice cold, sending chills down her spine. "You listen to me carefully Williams, cause I won't repeat myself. Tali is not a thief, she is the kindest person I've ever met. Wrex may seem brutish, but he is nicer than even he is letting in on. And Garrus cannot be blamed for a war that happened when he was just a child! Thirty years ago! I don't care what you say, this whole first contact war business is personal! What the hell happened to you during the war that made you hate turians so much!?"

Ashley simply gulped down hard and opened her mouth to speak, but she found nothing to say. Finally, she compiled her words and spoke, "My grandfather...his name was General Williams...he served on Shanxi during the war. He was the one who surrendered to the turians and ended the war. The first human to surrender to an alien force, he could never live it down, he was basically disgraced. War ran in the Williams' blood, and he had been the first to surrender to aliens! He was...kicked out of the military with 'honorable' discharge and our entire family...blacklisted."

"What do you mean 'blacklisted'?" Marcus asked, his cold tone dying down and becoming gradually softer as he spoke, his poisonous expression becoming kinder and more empathetic.

"They...basically labelled us as 'to be watched over'. Long story short we...a soldier under the family name of 'Williams' couldn't ever raise above the rank of Warrant Officer and always get the crappy assignments. That's why I'm still a Gunnery Chief and probably will be for as long as I serve. That's why I was assigned to Eden Prime. But I don't care, I'm an Alliance soldier, I have to serve, its part of our family. I quit now and I dishonor the family name as much as my grandfather did."

"That's not fair. You shouldn't be blacklisted for something that was morally correct. If your grandfather hadn't surrendered, Garrus would be have a knife at my throat and Tali and Wrex wouldn't be here. Just...talk to them, get to know them. I have, and they're friendlier than they look. Just give them a chance. Try out Tali first, I think you'll like her. You never know, you might become best friends." Marcus said, winking at the gunnery chief.

Ashley laughed, "I don't know about best friends Shepard, but I'll give it a try. And...I'm sorry for my outburst, it wasn't in my place to question -" She didn't get to finish as Marcus raised a hand and stopped her.

"Don't talk about 'your place.' We're all equals here Ashley, I just got irritated by the amount of racism on this ship. I've always hated racism and I can't stand it. I hope you understand." Ashley nodded, snapping a salute before turning to leave. Just as the door opened and Marcus was returning to his bed, Ashley stopped and turned.

"Shepard?" She asked.

"Yeah?" Marcus answered.

"Thank you for sorting me out. I really needed that." She said, smiling warmly.

"Anytime time...can I call you Ash?" He asked, smiling back.

"Sorry sir...I reserve that for boyfriends only." Ashley said, winking. _Maybe he's interested?_

"Ashley it is then." Marcus stated, losing his smile.

"Oh?" Ashley answered, slightly disappointed.

"Sorry Ashley, you're just not my type, that's all. No offense intended. Besides...the last time I let love get in the way of duty...I paid dearly for it. Romance has no place on the battlefield." Marcus seemed melancholic right now, like a destroyed wreck. He suddenly shook his head and continued towards his bed.

"Goodnight, Williams." The door slid shut and Ashley was left staring at the closed door.

_Paid dearly for it? Maybe he's right. Romance really doesn't have a place on the battlefield. _Without a second thought, Ashley retreated to her sleeping pod, her shift now over. It was time to get some sleep before Therum the next morning.

**{Loading...Rewind}**

_June 16, 2183_

_1746 hours._

_8 Klicks South of Nova Yekaterinburg, Prothean Dig Site, Therum._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Therum._

_Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni_

"No no no! Its too soon Nishara!" Liara cried out, her hands dancing over the terminal as she desperately tried to recover as much information as she could. All this knowledge, so much learned about the Protheans...she couldn't lose it to army of geth! What were geth doing on Therum anyway? What made even less sense, what were they doing outside of the Veil at all? None of it made sense. But she didn't care. She needed this information.

After a period of sporadic gunfire, Nishara responded, "Stop stalling! We have to leave now before these geth overwhelm our position!" the gunfire from Nishara's assault rifle continued, her fellow asari desperately trying to hold off the machine horde, but her efforts were dwindling and she would soon tire. But geth didn't tire, and long after she was exhausted, they would keep pushing and would eventually slaughter her and the scientist she swore to protect.

Liara simply ignored Nishara's words as she continued to type into her terminal, making sure all the data was properly streamed onto the prepared OSD. _Just a few more files! _She watched as the final upload began, and let a cry of victory when the terminal beeped, announcing it as finished and she yanked out the OSD.

"Miss T'Soni! We have to leave n-" Nishara's voice was suddenly cut off as a final bout of fire was heard, and that to went silent. Liara frowned as she hid the OSD in her pocket and she turned to her right to see what was wrong. She immediately found it when Nishara's body went flying into the ruin, her neck twisted at an odd angle. By the look of her eyes unfocusedness, she was dead. Nishara's body simply collapsed into the area below as a large, towering krogan marched onto the platform, two crimson red geth platforms holding odd looking rocket launchers and two milky white platforms with pulse rifles flanking his rear.

"There she is! Saren wants her alive!" The krogan roared, charging forward as the geth acknowledged his command, and charged straight for the asari. But they had made a fatal mistake, one that should have been obvious from the get go; she was an asari. She flared in biotic energy as she picked up one of the rocket wielding geth and threw it into the battlemaster, 2 tonnes of solid geth slamming into the krogan and causing him to collapse onto the ground. The geth cared little, and continued to chase the asari as she leapt off the platform and onto the rocky cavern floor below.

She landed with a thud, letting out a grunt as she looked up to see if her pursuers were keeping up. Big mistake. She turned just in time to see the two geth slam down next to her, pieces of rock and dirt shooting up in all directions as the landing didn't even slow them down. Without thinking, she let out a singularity that caught the second rocket trooper and its white trooper companion, sending them hurling in the air. Without hesitation, she began running towards the ruins. _I know about Prothean tech more than anyone. Maybe if I can trigger a security mechanism...well, the geth will get a nasty surprise. _

She continued running as she heard the mechanical clicking of more geth behind her, a louder and more demanding announcing the approach a geth juggernaut. She watched as two bright orange fireballs raced past her, slamming into the ruins nearby, barely making a dent.

"Capture her you stupid machines, don't kill her!" The krogan roared once again, but Liara didn't stop to get a good look at him. She was completely unarmed out without Nishara to assist her, she had no chance against a krogan warrior leading an army of geth. She would be dead before she could even fire a shot. It wasn't long before she finally reached the ruins and began playing with the elevator controls, desperately trying to gain control of them. But she did, and just in the nick of time as the krogan and his geth arrived as the elevator began its rapid ascent.

She didn't get very far however as the elevator stopped on the floor just above the one she escaped, and she saw geth drones rapidly approaching. _Goddess, what do I do? _Then she noticed the doorways. _Liara, how could you miss that! Those a shield doors! Forcefields! The geth will never break through those! _Making up for lost time, she raced forward, unleashing a tech grenade on the approaching recon drones, destroying two of them in the remotely activated blast.

Finally reaching the shield door control panel, she began reading through the numerous functions. Finding the one she wanted, she hit it, causing a bright blue barrier to immediately appear infront of her, shielding her from the hostile geth drones. Some drones smashed into the barrier upon activation and exploded, while most stopped just in time and looked at her through those white optics, watching her every move.

Liara smiled at her victory and prepared a second distress call, fearing the first one may not have made it. This time she sent it to Therum's capital city, Nova Yekaterinburg, hoping upon anything that they would send at least a turian marine detachment to help her. Yet again, the turians would have no idea how to fight geth. _Oh what are you going to do Liara? Contact the Migrant Fleet and ask them nicely to bombard the place? Not only would the Council throw a tantrum at 'trespassing council property' but I don't think I'd be 'saved' if I ended up caught in the bombardment. Besides...what do the quarians owe to some random asari researcher? I was part of the species that condemned them. _

Before she could continue her musings, she immediately felt like her arms were being tugged by unknown strings. A look of shock on her face, she was lifted from the ground and her arms and legs spread wide before a glowing sphere of energy surrounded her, encasing her in a impenetrable barrier of energy. It was handy, but there was one unintended side effect; she was trapped with noway of getting out. Then she heard the prothean voice speak, but she couldn't make out the words as it was in ancient prothean.

_When I activated the barrier, I must have triggered an automated defense system. They must have confused me as a trespasser! But if that's happening, then what about..._She never finished the thought as she watched the geth drones explode.

"What the hell is happening! What has the asari bitch done!" She smiled smugly as she watched what looked like prothean defense turrets deploy and begin unleashing pulsing beams of energy upon the unprepared geth forces, some getting vaporized while others exploded from the sheer heat of the beams.

_I can't get out, but those turrets will surely keep them out._

All she had to do now was wait for her rescue. Time would only tell if her distress call was heeded.

**"So this is how you met Liara T'Soni? First Shepard saves Ashley, then saves Tali and now he saves this asari? Does he have a thing for saving women?"**

**- Carter Dielheart**

**"I don't know, you'd have to ask him yourself." (chuckles)**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"Jokes, laughter and a stuttering quarian?"**

**- Carter Dielheart**

**"That's what Joker dubbed that meeting. He preferred to think that first meeting was simply jokes, laughter and a quarian who couldn't even compose her own words. I don't know if the man had a crystal ball to show for it, but even before anyone else, it was Joker who figured out Tali had a thing for our righteous commander."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"So what happened next?" **

**- Carter Dielheart**

**"You've asked your questions, now I get to ask one in return. Where the hell is Tali and Garrus?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"At some museum on Earth. They're teaching the kids there about Shepard. We've got agents keeping tabs on them."**

**- Carter Dielheart**

**"Why? Why is learning about Shepard so important to you?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"You've asked your question, so now its my turn again. What happened next?"**

**- Carter Dielheart**

**"She was like...yeah...Garrus? How's it going?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"Oh fuck. We're losing him again. Induce the anesthetic. We'll start again tomorrow."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

_**Author's Notes:**_

_**I have a few things to ask and some mass effect news you guys might be interested in.**_

_**Marcus Shepard is a Zionist Jew. Are you guys okay with this? I'm trying to put as much of myself into Shepard as possible, as it is MY Shepard, but I'm curious as to what you think of this. Do you like it? Do you hate the very idea of it? Obviously its too far into the story to really change now, but I'm just curious to what you think. Post in your review.**_

_**Now some Mass Effect news. I don't know whether its a rumor, or its actually confirmed, but apparently its been announced that Bioware are 'currently developing two hundred and sixty seperate pieces of DLC that will suit everyone's specified tastes.' What are your thoughts on this? From my standpoint, I can smell a 'Extended Cut Pt2' on the horizon and I think these DLC's might be tailored to 'romance closure.' If so, I'm stoked for a conclusion to the Tali romance (which is by far one of the most unrewarding romances in ME3, aside from the evacuation, goodbye and memorial scenes in extended cut). I hope they're rectifying that and with some hope, will bring back the ability to recruit all ME2 squadmates, produce better romance scenes (and romance archs in general) and finally get rid of that fucking stockphoto (Is it THAT hard to model Tali's face after Liz/Ash Sroka?)**_

_**More news also announces that Wrex is coming back to voice act for the new DLC, along with Seth Green who played Joker, so that sounds pretty interesting.**_

_**Now for the BAD news. Mass Effect 4 details below.**_

_**Bioware has made an official statement saying, 'Calling it Mass Effect 4 would make it sound like we are continuing on from Mass Effect 3. Which is not at all what we're doing.' So that confirms that it WON'T be based after the events of ME3. This bit saddens me the most, and I think you'll see why. They go on to say...**_

_**'It won't be based before the series either, you won't see any orginal characters and yadayadayada.'**_

_**NO ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!?**_

_**No...No...it can't be! I think this 'Planet of the Apes' reference suits the situation well:**_

_**"They blew it up! THEY BLEW IT ALL UP! DAMN YOU! YOU BLEW IT ALL UP!"**_

_**No more Tali love? No more Garrus batman awesomeness? No more of Joker's sarcastic remarks and EDI's sad attempts at humor? No...no more Ken or Gabby? No more of Javik's trolling? No more...I'm sorry, I can't do this. Bioware...what the fuck have you done. I hoped for at least a cameo, but we don't even get that? FUCK!**_

_**Shaking off the terrible news, Mass Effect 4 (information is not confirmed) will be named 'Mass Effect: Ion.'**_

_**Thanks for reading, I think I shall return to Mass Effect 3 How It Could Have Happened Now. I'm...I need time to...absorb this information...its...too much.**_


	10. Chapter 8 Welcome to Liara's World

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER EIGHT:**

**WELCOME TO LIARA'S WORLD**

_June 17, 2183_

_1201 hours, Therum Time._

_10 Klicks South of Nova Yekaterinburg, Unexplored Sector, Therum._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Therum._

_Mission Parameters: Liara T'Soni is located somewhere on Therum. She may have a link to Saren and we think that he may be attempting to recruit her. Her family bond to her mother, Matriarch Benezia, Saren's top commander, might be a valuable asset in the war against the geth. Locate the asari researcher and capture her alive for interrogation._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

It hadn't taken long for Marcus to get into his gear; first was his chestplate, followed by his shinguards, leggings, arms, shoulder pads and finally the helmet. He strapped all his weapons on, but leaving the Armageddon loosely in his grip as he checked that his med-gel inhibitors were in working order, his kinetic barriers active and his armor was sealed tight. He eyed his armageddon shotgun for the last time, smiling. It was the latest model; the X. _This belongs to a certain engineer now. She'll need it more than I do._

When he was finally finished, he exited the cabin at a brisk pace and steadily approached the elevator, nodding at Pressly and Chakwas as they ate in the mess hall and entering the elevator, watching the door slide closed and waiting for the elevator to arrive below. When the door finally slid open, he grinned.

Ashley looked like she was attempting small talk with Tali, but didn't look like she was succeeding, as both weren't even listening to each other as they watched Garrus and Wrex exchange venomous glances as they fought over which weapon was better; sniper rifle or shotgun. Kaidan stood leaning on the Mako, watching the confrontation with a grin similiar to Marcus'.

Kaidan immediately looked at the doorway and was followed by Ashley, who just wanted an excuse to end her awkward conversation with Tali. They stood to attention and saluted, followed by Tali who comically tried to imitate the gesture, but her three fingered hand just made it incredibly awkward looking. Wrex and Garrus didn't even notice; that or they did and ignored him, and both kept arguing. It was now that he had to intervene.

Marching forward, he moved infront of the duo, everyone looking wide eyed at their crazy commander. Giving a mock angry look for measure, he looked at both of them constantly, "Enough! If you two can't cooperate one of you can stay on the ship! Am I clear?" Garrus and Wrex immediately backed off, but nodded, muttering their responses, "Yes...sir."

"I can't hear you! That or I'm growing deaf!" Marcus shouted, prompting them to repeat themselves; albeit louder.

"Yes sir!" They practically shouted, and Marcus nodded, grinning. _I sound like my old drill instructor already. And my dad. _He motioned for the team to follow him to the Mako. Once they arrived at the speedy tank, he turned around and threw his armageddon to Tali, the quarian barely just catching it in her small hands.

"That's yours to keep. Take good care of it; I used that during the invasion of Elysium. And don't even think of rejecting the offer; not only am I getting a new one, but you need one." He smiled warmly at the quarian, who nodded her thanks; or at least he thought she did as her face was hidden behind a mask, and then attached the shotgun to the back of her waist, turning back to face her commander, her eyes seemingly scanning him.

He ignored the gesture, and slammed the surface of the Mako tank.

"This here is 50 tons of speedy, HE spewin, dee-vine intervention! It has a high-powered, 112 inch main cannon followed by a powerful rapidfire HMG! Its fast, has tires that can grip to any surface known and can hold up to nine operators. This is the M-35 All-Terrian Heavy Vehicle. I like to call the Mako." Marcus finished, still pacing up and down the vehicle's length until he stopped next to Wrex, grinning.

"Well commander, I think you'll finally get your chance to show us your _excellent _driving skills." Ashley finished as Kaidan chuckled lightly. Garrus let a grin crease his mandibles, while Tali's features were unreadable and Wrex just looked...well...like Wrex. Marcus chuckled.

"Only if you're willing to go. Now go on...everyone get inside. Tali, come here." Everyone did as said, Wrex barely fitting through the hatch. It wasn't long before everyone was inside and buckling up, except Tali, who steadily and nervously approached her commander. Before she could say anything, he immediately dropped his shotgun into her hands, and smiled as she studied the weapon, her hands gliding over it and checking every nook and cranny like a child. _There's alot of things that are cute, but this? That's adorable. Would be better if it wasn't a shotgun though. _

"I...I can't...I can't accept this! This is-" Tali began, but Marcus immediately rose his hand once more to silence her.

"I've been this with you before haven't I?" Marcus began, but no frustration was held in his voice.

"Yes, but...this is YOUR weapon. YOUR shotgun. I can't just take it away from you!" Tali almost shouted, but she immediately calmed herself down before she got any louder at fear of her commander rediculing her.

"Tali, I've got an assault rifle, pistol, sniper rifle, biotics and heavy combat armor. Tell me again why you're worried?" Marcus joked, causing Tali to giggle a little at her own foolishness. _Its one shotgun compared to the vast array of weaponry he holds. Besides, why am I so worried? _Tali nodded but apparently Marcus wasn't finished.

"And you can keep it. I'm getting a new shotgun soon so I thought you could have my old one. Just be careful with it; it holds alot of memories. And I want you with me, engineering compartment. I need your tech abilities in there so you can help balance the shields and divert power. Think you can handle that? Or was Adams being sarcastic when he said you were the best engineer he's ever met?" Marcus finished jokingly.

"He-He said that? a-a-about me?" Tali asked, geniunely flattered. _Back on the Rayya I'd just be called slightly smarter than the rest. But my boss is saying that I'm a better engineer than him? For that to happen on the fleet, I'd have to disable the entire geth fleet! _

"Sure did. I can't wait to see you in action. I've also heard Wrex has been giving you some shotgun training. If you want, I can teach you hand-to-hand later." Tali felt butterflies appear in her stomach. _Calm down. Its just martial arts training. _"I'd...appreciate that." _First he asks me to sit NEXT to HIM, and now he wants to spar with me? Keelah...how am I going to drag myself out of this one? _Without a second glance, Tali holstered her new armageddon shotgun on her waist, testing the weight, before stepping into the Mako, closely followed by Marcus.

The vehicle was cramped, but not cramped on the level of World War II tanks. There was a back and forward compartment; the back compartment housed numerous seats and equipment while the forward compartment had three seats; gun control, shields and power and of course, driver. Marcus smiled as he found Garrus already sitting to operate the turret, while Tali followed him. He immediately found himself plopping down into the driver's seat, attaching the safety harness, while he motioned for Tali to sit in the engineering seat. She hesitated for a few seconds, before sitting.

"Argh...I can't get this thing on. Neither can Wrex." Garrus' voice came through the compartment and Marcus turned to see what all the fuss was about. He immediately found it; the safety harness. The turian was too big for it and he looked like he was clawing at it. Wrex was WAY too big for the harness, and his strength had obviously gotten the better of him as the harness lay completely snapped in the krogan's large grip. He chuckled.

"Well...this vehicle was built for human passengers. Its an Alliance-manufactured vehicle afterall. You'll just have to get used to it. But I'm sure with your thick skeletal head and Wrex's manly strength you'll both be fine."

Garrus simply snorted while Wrex rolled his eyes, sinking back in his seat, inspecting his Solokov. Ashley sat wearily next to the krogan; gazing up at her towering neighbour every minute. Kaidan sat across from her, seemingly reading something on his omnitool. Tali was getting herself acquianted with the numerous systems, but seemed to be having trouble. She eventually called out in frustration.

"Bosh'tet! All of this is in human! I can't understand any of it!" Tali then noticed Marcus' raised brow and put her visor in her palm, shaking her head. "Sorry...I just can't understand your language and its impairing my ability to execute my job." Marcus nodded, moving forward towards the console, his head almost resting in her lap. She immediately felt her face flush in total red, quietly thanking the ancestors again for her mask. Marcus didn't notice her legs tense up as he finally finished his adjustments, and leaned back into his seat.

"There. I've managed to translate it into khelish. Oh, and our language is called 'english', although that's not our only language. I'll explain the rest later if you want. Right now, we've got an asari researcher who's not yet friend or foe to kill or rescue. Either way helps my pay grade." Everyone in the cabin chuckled, and Marcus left the grin on his face as he prepped the numerous systems. Joker took this moment to shout into the comm.

"Ladies, gentlemen and non-humans, we are arriving at Fucked-Up Central. Next stop, Asari-Researcher-Who-Needs-Her-Ass-Saved." Noone laughed at the pilot, simply staring at the comm. A growl of frustration was heard followed by Joker's voice again.

"Well I thought it was funny! Okay Commander Killjoy, how 'bout actually leaving? Or are you planning for Santa Claus to save T'Soni or whatever the hell her fancy name is?" This time some people managed to smile, but mostly the humans of the group, as noone under stood who Santa Claus was.

"Santa Claws? That sounds...horrible." Tali asked, Garrus nodded his agreement, while Wrex snickered.

"Its Santa Claus. As in C-L-A-U-S. I'll explain this later. I should seriously run a school for this shit. Right now, let's all make Joker a happy man, and get the hell off his ship before he starts shitting bricks." This time, everyone looked directly at Marcus, all confused except, once again, the humans of the group. Marcus sighed heavily.

"Definitely need to talk later...anyway, let's get moving. Pressly ship's all yours, take care of her. This goes smoothly and we'll be back soon." Marcus stated, waiting on his navigator, and XO's, response.

"In the Alliance, nothing goes smoothly. Good hunting, Pressly out." With that Marcus began tapping at multiple controls.

"Joker, open the cargo hold doors. Tali, open the shutters. We can't drive if we can't see." Tali nodded and flicked the button for the Cargo Hold Doors, which was incorrectly translated into Khelish as _yddma'tolish yer _which in english would mean _Doors Hold Cargo. _How odd this 'english' was. All thought of weird languages was tossed aside as her eyes opened to see the lava world of Therum. Fiery volcanoes thrived in the distance, while red hot streaks of lava and fire streamed the planet's surface.

That wasn't what scared her. It was how far away from it she was. Turning slowly downwards, she looked at the alitude bar and almost choked on her own tongue.

_6000 feet. _

"I guess the Normandy will drop us off?" Tali asked, hoping upon all the ancestors that she was right and Marcus was doing this for effect. She suddenly melted into her chair when his reply came.

"Nuh. We're going in...now!" Without warning, Marcus slammed the acellerator and the Mako rocketed out of the cargo hold and began its rapid descent into Therum's atmosphere. Tali immediately felt weightless at the sudden accelleration.

"KKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLL LLAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed, but it was barely heard over Marcus' enthusiastic shouting. Kaidan made some kind of comment about 'sounds like a cowboy', whatever that was, but she ignored it for the safety of her legs, her visor pressing into her thighs as he held on for dear life.

"You might not want to do that Tali. We'll be hitting the ground in ten seconds." Tali immediately acknowledged his logic and sat up, her three-fingered hands gripping the seat in fear. Marcus chuckled as he looked at her.

"Don't you just love this!?" Marcus shouted over the sound of his own shouting.

"NOOOOOTTTTTTT AT ALL! THE SOONER WE HIT THE GROUND-" Tali had realized just how soon she would hit the ground. She felt the Mako slam into ground as the impact jarred every bone in her body, making her bones feel like vibrating toothbrushes. Luckily the safety harness was tight enough to keep her mask from slamming into the console, and she looked around to the Mako come to a stop 10 meters from where they landed. Marcus looked unfazed, while Wrex was rubbing his crest. Garrus had turned around and hugged his chair like a long lost lover, before turning back around in embarrasment.

"Never...make me...come on this...vehicle...again." Tali said inbetween breaths, Marcus chuckling lightly as he also checked the cabin.

"Trust me girl, you get used to it. Takes time, but you get used to it." Tali was surprised to hear Chief Williams voice when the sentence hit her ears. Ashley had tried to talk with the quarian, but it had been short and incredibly awkward, ending with their commander's appearence on the deck. She had shown less racism towards her then before, but it wasn't considerable.

"Okay. That landing will definitely have attracted some , get working on those shields. Garrus, I'll before evasive motions while you pick off any enemy targets. Keep an eye out for them, these guys are perfect ambushers." Marcus ordered, his orders met only by a single response by his turian companion.

"Ambushers? Shepard, they're flashlights. Their heads practically radiate 'I'm right here' all over the place." Marcus conceded to the turians point, but he wasn't willing to let his guard down just in case. "Point. Just keep an eye out just in case. Only Tali knows what these synthetic bastards are made of."

With that, Marcus hit the acellerator and the Mako drove forward.

Forward into Liara's World.

**{Loading...}**

_June 17, 2183_

_1218 hours, Therum Time._

_8 Klicks South of Nova Yekaterinburg, Prothean Dig Site, Therum._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Therum._

_Mission Parameters: Benezia's daughter will make a valuable servant for our coming army. Find her and capture her so she may be subjected to her eventual indoctrination. She will be one of many who survive the coming harvest._

_Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Battlemaster Gatatog Verx. _

The Battlemaster eyed the now trapped asari, his glare piercing the blue barrier seperating him from the bitch. The asari didn't even look him in the eyes, simply looking smugly at the numerous defense turrets that unleashed beams of light upon his machine troops. Most of the geth forces he brought with him had the brains...or processors...to actually take cover from the bringers of death. The Battlemaster hadn't been spotted by the turrets, and therefore didn't worry about them, just letting his glare linger on the asari.

_All this trouble for HER. Why the hell does Saren want this bitch so badly? _

**YOU WILL DO WHAT'S NEEDED OF YOU. THOSE WHO SERVE ARE REWARDED WITH SALVATION FROM THE COMING FIRE.**

The krogan battlemaster immediately felt his head throb with the introduction of the powerful voice in his head, trying to clear his head by shaking it. _Whatever that thing is, it wants this bitch, and I must please it. So it'll be quiet. _Spitting into the soil nearby, he equipped his shotgun and lit up in biotics as he rose a barrier between himself and the turrets, rushing towards the area just below them. The turrets immediately snapped towards him, but before they could fire hot beams at him, he ducked under them, leaving the turrets useless.

The asari's eyes now fell to the krogan, but her gaze didn't linger. It didn't show fear, signs she was intimidated, or even the slighest sign of forfeit. She just sat hovering, smiling.

"What the hell are you smiling about you asari bitch? Saren may want you alive, but I think he won't miss a few limbs."

**THE ASARI WILL SERVE ITS PURPOSE AS MUCH AS YOU WILL. ANY HARM TO IT WILL BE MET BY YOUR DISEMBOWELMENT. YOU WILL OBEY. YOU WILL SERVE. **

_Oh how much I wish you'd fuck off and the fuck out of my MIND!_

The krogan screamed in pain as the disembodied voice sent beacons of pain througout his body; all coming from nowhere, but hitting him like the force of being crushed by a 500 ton tank. The krogan doubled over, but immediately recovered upon his decision to cooperate. The more he did, the less pain he felt.

He looked up at the asari and approached the barrier, the asari's gaze never leaving his. He finally came to a stop infront of her, his face creasing into a smile as he slammed a fist against the barrier, ignoring the reverbrations sent up his arm.

"Open the shield bitch and I'll make sure you live. Saren wants you alive, so that's enough that I won't kill you." The asair suddenly looked confused, shocked by the krogan's sudden change of tone.

"So first you want to rip my limps off now you want to take me prisoner? I'll never work for Saren! I hope the goddess sends you straight to _alesi!_" The asari shouted, angering her semi-captor, who slammed the shield again, turning back to look out upon his geth servants. Raising his shotgun, he pumped a shell straight into both turrets, the machines exploding in brilliant blue light as his gaze remet the asari's.

"You WILL work for Saren. Its envitable. His will cannot be rejected. He has a way of...taking control of you. Your mother fell for him and so did I. You will follow his methods. And we all be saved from the coming fire." Verx stated, waiting for the young asari's answer.

"I don't care. Saren is a tyrant, and I will not do what you say! I'll die first! B-B-Besides! You will never breach the shield!" The asari shouted semi-confidently, gaining a grunt of approval from the battlemaster. _For a fleshie she sure is confident. _He simply smirked.

"We'll see." And with that, he retreated down the railing and began leading the remaining geth in a search effort to find away around the shield.

_If there's a way. We'll find it. And that asari will join our cause. _

**{Loading...}**

_June 17, 2183_

_1223 hours, Therum Time. _

_9.6 klicks South of Nova Yekaterinburg, Mining Sector, Therum._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Therum._

_Mission Parameters: Liara T'Soni is located somewhere on Therum. She may have a link to Saren and we think that he may be attempting to recruit her. Her family bond to her mother, Matriarch Benezia, Saren's top commander, might be a valuable asset in the war against the geth. Locate the asari researcher and capture her alive for interrogation._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

Marcus watched as the geth trooper was immediately crushed from the sudden added weight to its weight, the Mako bumping as it rolled over the now permanently inactive geth platform. Without stopping, Marcus kept performing donut maneveurs while Tali constantly fiddled with power, trying desperately to filter enough power from non-critical systems to power the shields. Garrus spun the turret around, and emptied a flood of high-velocity rounds into a geth rocket trooper, causing the platform to collapse onto the ground, its chasis riddled with bullet rounds.

"Shepard! Another one of those geth tanks! 12:00!" Marcus immediately nodded his acknowledged and turned to face the huge platform. Tank was right; the Geth 'Armature' as they had dubbed it, was a fairly big unit, resembling something like a spider. It had four large spindly legs, with a long neck like appendage extending out of its main body to show a 'head' or the main optics, where a hidden siege pulse cannon was hidden; a weapon that proved devastatingly effective at draining shields and melting through armor. To make matters worse, it had also had a HMG. It also wore a brownish like exterior. Its only disadvantage was mobility, which the Mako easily countered.

Unfortunately, Shepard was nowhere close to being a good driver. Some may have called him the 'drunken rhino', whatever a rhino was, Tali didn't know.

Without hesitation, Garrus hit the button to pump a heavy explosive round into the gun chamber and once loaded, fired the metal slug, the explosive ordnance impacting the front of the Armature and causing it to topple, the huge mech's front seemingly blowing apart as bits of metal chasing landed in all directions, and leaving the Armature clinically destroyed as the tank fell to the ground, its legs no longer able to hold the vehicle's dead weight.

Marcus immediately pulled the brakes, causing the vehicle to skid to a stop just as they hit the ledge that would send them hurling into the lava pit below. He slowly reversed the vehicle and pulled it to a stop once again, allowing everyone some breathing room while he scanned the area ahead.

"We're almost there people. One kilo and a half. We should get there in 10 mikes if we meet minimal resistance. Maximum resistance, we'll be looking at 60 mikes. Get some rest, we move in one mike." Marcus then pulled out his water canteen and look a drink from it, before capping the top again and reattaching it to the side of his belt. To his side he watched as Tali opened a section in her vocalizer and inserted a tube full of nutrient paste into her helmet, the grey substance sliding into her 'mouth' inside.

Once done watching Tali eat, which he could not help but find cute once again, he went to check on the others. _There is something about that girl that keeps putting me in this trance. What in the world is it? _He saw Ashley and Wrex who for once shared a mutual aggitation at not being involved in the surrounding combat. Kaidan and Garrus exchanged remarks, both grinning. _Barely know each other and we're acting like we've known each other for years._

Seeing as everyone was enthralled in their conversations, he turned to Tali. He swore he saw her quickly turn her head from him and back to the window, but he shook it off as imagination. He then opened his mouth to speak, "So Tali...what do you think of this mission so far?" He asked.

Tali immediately turned to him, somewhat nervously. "What? Therum or chasing Saren?" She asked and Marcus smiled, "Chasing Saren of course." He crossed his arms and continued to wait for Tali's answer, the quarian following the same posture as she entered a pensive stance.

"Well...its exhilirating and scary at the same time. When I started on my pilgrimage I never thought I'd be travelling alongside a group of multiracials and fighting off a galactic invasion by my people's most hated enemies. I want to complete my pilgrimage and return home to my people, but also know that Saren must be stopped." She finished, waiting for Marcus' reply. It was a like an internal struggle not to reach out and touch him.

_Keelah...I revel his touch that much? How far have I fallen...having a crush for a human guy? Ancestors, I need to make sure this doesn't become verbal. _It was too late though. Marcus had noticed her look pressing on him, and chuckled.

"Something on me?" He asked, shaking Tali from her thoughts.

"What? Of course not! Nothing! Why would you think that?" Tali said in rapidfire, her cheeks lighting up in embarassment. _Why do always zone out like that! And especially on him of all people!_

"Because you were looking directly at my chest. And you seemed lost. Are you sure there's nothing there?" Marcus was secretly joking with her, playing around with her mind. Staying to his part, he pretended to check his chestplate for signs of the pretend substance, while Tali babbled on in the background, in her own cute way.

"I-I-I I no! No no no. No there's n-n-nothing there! Well, there is obvious something there as you are wearing a chestplate, how silly of me! Otherwise you would be nak-I mean vulnerable! And that wouldn't very good because then-t-t-then you'd get hurt! And I'm sure you could take care of yourself but-"

"Whoa! Slow down! I was joking Tali. I just noticed you looked distant. I was trying to get information out of you, but obviously that's failed." Marcus said with a large grin on his face, trying not to laugh at Tali's nonsensical babbling.

"Oh...I see. Well...I-" Tali didn't get to finish as they heard everyone in the cabin begin to shout that they were all rested and ready to go. Marcus turned to Tali and nodded with a warm smile, causing Tali to smile herself as she turned back to her console. _Yep. I DEFINITELY have a crush on him. _

"Okay people, let's get this done. I'm heading into the tunnel. Garrus, be prepared for anything. Tali, keep the shields running. That last armature almost had us." Both his companions nodded, while the others just sat there, silent as ever. Without giving anyone any time to think about what they were doing, he hit the acellerator and the Mako shot forward, heading straight for the tunnel as he performed a full 180 degree turn. The Mako rolled up the ramp and into the barren tunnel, bits of mining equipment and dead miners lay all over the remains of the tunnel. Most of them showed wounds similiar to Jenkins, and other simply lay with snapped legs or bits and pieces laying at awkward angles.

The only resistance in the tunnel itself was a simple pair of rocket troopers, and Garrus didn't even bother wasting bullets on them as Marcus simply drove over them, the platforms utterly crushed by the larger vehicle. It wasn't long before they found light at the end of the tunnel, and after narrowly avoiding two rockets and destroying their creators, they managed to traverse a nearby canyon.

"This is too easy, Shepard. I don't like it." Garrus pointed out, and Marcus nodded in agreement. Something wasn't quite right.

"Shepard...I'm picking up a hostile presence just around the next bend. Its big." Tali stated from her console, as it contained the Mako's motion tracker.

"Okay Garrus, you heard her. Prepare the explosive rounds. If its big you can definitely expect armatures. Keep on the look out." Marcus ordered, and Garrus simply nodded, reloading the mass acellerator cannon.

Meanwhile, Marcus did everything but a discreet approach. Tali just watched as the Mako barrelled down the canyon, finally rounding the corner to give them a perfect view of the enemy she had picked up. They were facing an overrun mining facility, where four geth rocket turrets faced them, red laser dots landing on their vehicle.

"Keelah..." Tali exclaimed, but Marcus simply smiled.

"Everybody buckled in?" He asked.

"Yeeeeesssssss, why?" Garrus asked, worried about what the human was about to do.

Suddenly the Mako shot forward and headed straight for the facility's main entrance. The turrets opened fire, but their rockets simply flew past the Mako as it bypassed the defenses and smashed right through the metal doors, causing them to collapse on both side as their Mako erupted inside the geth-controlled mine.

They immediately found themselves surrounded; ten geth troopers approached from all sides, some with the white armor of a shock trooper, the black armor of a standard trooper, the crimson armor of a rocket trooper and the towering height of a single juggernaut. Aiming for the heaviest of their enemies, Marcus braced himself as the Mako hurled itself into the juggernaut, the platform not getting off a single shot as its entire bottom torso was torn off by the sheer impact of the Mako.

He continued driving until the juggernaut was completely ripped in half by the impact, bits of geth armor casings laying uselessly on the ground, followed by its modified pulse shotgun. He then pulled it into immediate reverse as he shouted.

"Garrus! Tear them all a new one!"

"With pleasure!" The turian responded, and his words were followed by the heavy thumping of the main cannon firing round after round, explosions thundering outside as bits of geth flew all over the place. A few rocket troopers and the occasional shock trooper got some shots in, but with Tali's speedy movements and Garrus quick gun reflexes, the geth barely scratched the Mako as the lone vehicle decimated their ranks. Within a few moments, it was all over and the vehicle lay before the bodies of numerous geth platforms.

"Well...that was insane!" Kaidan exclaimed, chuckling at how things had turned out. Everyone else followed suit, but it wasn't long before they were continuing down the canyon and they finally found themselves erupting out and onto a wide open area. An area where they heard the tell tale sounds of humming engines.

"Incoming dropship, Shepard! four o'clock high!" Garrus shouted and Marcus saw the vessel as it descended towards the area ahead, hovering. The dropship followed the same design of all geth ships; it was shaped like a praying mantis in attack position. It was essentially a geth cruiser in miniturized form. They watched as the dropship dropped two armatures up ahead and as soon as it had arrived, it was gone again, ascending back into the sky.

"I see them. Preparing heavy rounds. Firing in three seconds." Garrus stated, Marcus hearing the slugs being slotted into the turret's firing chamber.

The first shot rang out, impacting the armature squarely in the chest, the obvious sign of shields revealed by the shimerring blue field appearing in front of it, shrugging off the blast. Ramming the vehicles seemed to work quite well, but due to the platform's proximity to the steaming hot lava pit below, he wasn't going to risk falling in.

"Keep firing! We'll ignore them! Just keep pelting them to keep them stationary! They'll be too slow to pursue us!"

Garrus did as told and the Mako continued past the four-legged tanks as Garrus continued to pound them with round after round.

It wasn't long before they were out of range of the armatures, and the squad of unlikelies pressed on towards the dig site. As Marcus drove on, the squad in the compartment continued exchanging, with Kaidan and Garrus entering a very fluid conversation.

"So...what do you think of us human grunts?"

Garrus' initial answer was a blank stare at Kaidan, before the turian finally said, "Anything's better than C-Sec."

"Is that so? What's so bad about C-Sec that made you quit?" Kaidan asked, leaning back into his seat.

"All the red tape, regulations and laws, all the political backlash. Its all crap. They were never willing to do what it took to stop crime, so instead of arresting the criminals, they set them free claiming to be 'no evidence' to prove them guility. I watched people like Fist walk free, but now we've fixed that." Garrus smiled smugly at the last bit, which made Kaidan flinch a little. It was scary to see that this turian took satisfaction in killing people even if they were criminals.

"You really think killing the criminals will really stop the problem, Garrus?" Kaidan asked, waiting for the turian's answer. Garrus' gaze seemed to examine the human for a moment before turning back to his console.

"Its the only way" were Garrus' words that ended the conversation as it begun, and the Mako was thrown into silence as they drove along the path. Suddenly, Tali shouted.

"Colossus! Right ahead!" The quarian shouted, visibly frightened.

"Colossus? What in the world is a Colossus?" Garrus shouted over the Mako's screeching as Marcus hit the brakes.

"Think of an armature, doubled in size, stronger shields and a more powerful main gun." Tali explained.

"Oh. Well...shit." Garrus epiphanied, and everyone would chuckle if they weren't facing a gigantic armoured walker. Suddenly, Marcus sighed in frustration.

"And its blocking our only access to the dig site. So we need to take it out. Garrus get ready. Tali, I've got an idea and I need your help with it. Kaidan, take the wheel."

Almost simultaneously, everyone in the vehicle nodded, and Kaidan unlatched his safety harness and sat in the driver's seat, reattaching the harness as Marcus moved to sit beside Tali and work on her console. Garrus simply began loading machine gun rounds.

"Okay Tali, is it possible to load the gun with disruptor rounds?" Marcus asked the engineer as the Mako continued forward, propelled by Kaidan's better driving skills.

"Well...yes, all I have to do is flow power from the shield regulators into the secondary gunnery output. That way the power will oscillate inside-" Tali stopped upon seeing that Marcus was smiling, "What?" she asked.

"I'm not an engineer Tali. I don't understand anything your saying. All I got was 'flow power from shields into main gun to form disruptor rounds.' Correct?" He asked, and Tali was hit by that sudden realization. _Well, quarians will be quarians._

"I'll get right on it. Should only take a few seconds." The quarian stated confidently, and Marcus slapped her on the shoulder, gently shaking it for good measure before moving towards Garrus.

"Garrus. Step aside, this one's mine." Marcus stated, and Garrus, after some hesitation, got off the turret and Marcus took his place, strapping himself in.

"Be careful. Tali forgot to mention that the Colossus is white this time!" Garrus stated sarcastically before retreating to sit next to Kaidan.

"I'm keep that in mind." With that, Marcus reared the gun on the rapidly approaching Colossus. Tali hadn't been wrong when she said it was double the size; this thing was the size of two double-decker buses, had a more milky white exterior, stronger looking legs, two HMGs instead of one and looked as if it had stronger shields.

"There! I've done it!" Tali stated and Marcus simply smiled in response as he opened up on the colossal geth tank. Rounds pelted into the assault platform, being seemlessly absorbed by the shields but in actual fact were draining the shields as they did. It wasn't long before the Mako's HMG overheated, but by that time the shields on the Colossus were completely gone.

"Kaidan! Ram it so I can put a round in its optics!" Marcus ordered, and Kaidan was hesitant about initiating yet another ram, but did as ordered and acellerated towards the larger armature, the tank's optics glowing bright blue as it began charging its Siege Pulse. Just as they hit it, a huge pulse of blue shot past and impacted the ground behind them, leaving a huge 11 by 11 meter sized crater of molten hot dirt.

The Colossus toppled over from the ram of the Mako, but didn't fully until the Mako had it pinned against a wall. Rearing the gun up, Marcus fired an explosive round straight into the Colossus' optics. A huge resounding explosion rocked the Mako as the Colossus' 'head' exploded in hundreds of different pieces, leaving nothing but the 'neck' of the platform intact. Without its optics, the platform simply stopped operating, and a simple reverse from the Mako allowed the platform to topple onto the ground, destroyed.

With it destroyed, Marcus reassumed his original position and everybody continued their original tasks as they continued towards the dig site; and surprisingly, without enemy resistance.

"That Colossus must have been the last line of defense." Garrus pointed out.

"Or a distraction so they could set up an organized defense." Ashley also pointed out, Marcus nodding to both of their points. The driving continued on for another two minutes until they reached a dead end; well, a dead end for the Mako. The path was cut off, with a large rocky outcrop, too hard for the Mako to ram through, blocked the vehicle's entrance.

"Dig site's on the other side of those rocks. 90 meters, straight up." Tali indicated, bringing her omni-tool up.

"Then it looks like were going in on foot. Get your weapons locked and loaded and move out. Stay behind Williams. Williams, I want you on point scouting for anything that could be a threat and then alert us. DO NOT, under any circumstances engage the enemy until I say so or reinforcements arrive. I'm not losing anyone on this mission. Understood?"

Ashley simply nodded before, like everyone else, moving to get her weapons. Marcus unstrapped his harness and moved to the lockers in the cabin, pulling out his raikou sidearm, his punisher sniper rifle and diamond back, before moving towards the hatch, watching as Tali grabbed out her armageddon shotgun and standard issue striker pistol.

Hitting the panel on the side of the hatch to open it, the door slid open to reveal the molten red world of Therum. He jumped out, assault rifle at the ready as he rapidly approached the rocky outcrop, Ashley already up ahead. It wasn't long before Wrex followed, then Garrus, Kaidan and finally, Tali. Tali took up center due to her amount of vulnerability, and Wrex took the rear due to his amount of armor.

Garrus took point behind Ashley with Marcus, as both of them had sniper rifles and could easily provide cover fire for Ashley if the mission went FUBAR, and Kaidan would be able to protect Tali from any fire that managed to get past them. Nodding at his team to move, Garrus followed him with his Banshee assault rifle and both of them moved up, side by side, up the ramp as Kaidan then Tali and finally Wrex followed, leaving the Mako behind.

Marcus could feel the heat through his armor; running in this temperture, especially in heavy armor, was going to push him past his limits. But if anyone could do it, it was him. The heat stung as it went through the armor as if it was transparent, and heated up his body. Bits of dust and ash lay on the ground all over the place, the aftermath of volcanic activity on the hostile world.

_How a city could be built on such a unhospitable planet is beyond me. _Luckily, this area was clear of any major volcanoes, so it wouldn't be disatrous if a miniture one went off. _But in this armor, I'd probably get cooked. _He shook the thoughts of his team getting burnt alive out of his mind as he focused on the mission ahead of them. _Snatch and grab. Get Liara and get the hell out of there. _

It wasn't long before they cleared the ramp, and they found themselves at the top of the hill. What was awaiting them was a lesser sight. They watched as Ashley dove for cover as a flood of gunfire pummeled her original position. Tracing the shots back to the assailants who fired them, he spotted three shock troopers, a single rocket trooper and worst of all; three snipers perched uptop. They had the advantage of higher ground.

"SNIPERS! Get to cover! Move!" Marcus ordered motioning everyone into cover as he pelted the rocks the snipers were using for cover with assault rifle cover. "Garrus! Kaidan! Supressing fire! Supressing fire!" Garrus and Kaidan immediately nodded, their assault rifles joining the cacophony of gunfire, instead aiming for the other geth platforms they faced.

Tali immediately slid into cover, visibly frightened, shotgun held tightly in her iron grip. Wrex didn't waste anytime in foolishly charging the geth lines.

"Wrex! Get to fucking cover!" Marcus shouted, but it fell on deaf ears as Wrex ignored his orders and charged the enemy line. Deciding the best way to save Wrex from imminent death was to help him, he motioned for Garrus' Reaper sniper rifle.

"Garrus, take your rifle and aim for those snipers. I want those things destroyed. Kaidan, stay here with Tali. I don't want these synthetic bastards trying to flank us and kill her, she's vulnerable without proper armor. Ashley, come with me, we're pulling Wrex's ass out of the fire." Marcus ordered in rapidfire, all of them moving to execute their assigned tasks.

Kaidan immediately slipped next to Tali and began reassuring her while Garrus equipped his sniper rifle and fired off a supressive shot, causing another sniper to duck before it could fire its deadly payload. Without waiting, Marcus and Ashley charged straight after Wrex, who by now had a shock trooper pinned up against a wall, his solokov having lately blown its optics clean off, leaving a fine covering of white liquid on his reptillian face. Another shock trooper turned to analyze the new threat; its pulse rifle ready to gut the krogan.

Without thinking, Marcus raised his rifle and fired a heap of rounds into the shock trooper, before ramming into it with a biotic barrier, causing the platform to fly into a nearby wall. He watched as a rocket trooper approached him, rocket launcher in hand. It didn't get a chance to fire however as a massive fireball slammed into it, causing the rocket loaded in the chamber to explode and rip the platform to shreds. Turning, he saw Ashley saluting to him with a huge grin.

He heard the crackle of a sniper rifle shot band watched as the shattered remains of a geth sniper's optics fell to the groun infront of them. Smiling, he charged full of biotics again and charged the final shock trooper, his fist unleashing a massive cascading shockwave of dark energy that sent the trooper flying into a nearby wall and taking one of its legs with it.

Once Garrus had finished off the pesky snipers ahead, they regrouped near the area the dead shock troopers had been hiding before their untimely demise. "Anyone injured?" Marcus asked, watching as his team gathered around him.

"Just a bruise from shoving Tali's head back into cover. Sniper almost took her head off." Kaidan stated firmly.

"I was trying to help! I don't need you to be so overprotective! I can handle myself! I was going to overload their shields for Garrus!" Tali argued, and Marcus shook his head.

"Point is that Kaidan just saved your life. When in doubt, just blow the fucker's head off. Per se." Marcus joked, and then motioned for the others to move up. As they appeared over the hill they finally spotted the entrance into the dig site; a large cylinder like appendage that dug into the ground with a ramp leading up to it, while surrounded by multiple mining vehicles and gas containers. It was deserted for the most part, so entering could be a walk in the park.

Taking point this time, with the others behind him, he slowly approached the cylinder, all the while scanning the area around him, the putrid area filling his nostrils. It was silent. _Tooooo quiet. I really don't-_

First he heard it, a mechanical clicking sound that was definitely geth, then he saw it. At speeds he couldn't determine, a large geth unit slammed into the ground infront of him, and he immediately focused his rifle on it. This geth was different though; it was walking on all fours. Its hands and legs, especially arms, were much longer and thinner than normal, covered in a thin, rubbery kind of substance instead of armor. It didn't wield any visible weapons, but its sheer speed made it a nimble enemy. Its neck stretched up so its glowing optics could look into him, as if daring to attack it.

Within seconds, three more of the same type joined it, before an even louder slam was heard, followed by an armature emerging from the cloud of dust. "Oh you have to be shitting me..." Garrus exclaimed as the ones he called 'hoppers' leapt back onto the building nearby, seemingly sticking to the wall like a spider before climbing away. The armature glared down at them as he ordered his team into cover.

"Fucking armatures. Okay; Tali, I need your assitance in this one. Garrus, Kaidan, I want you supressing those hopper-variants while Ash and Wrex hit that thing with everything they have. Tali, I want you to give that overload everything you have. I'll keep you covered." Tali nodded and slipped next to him, working rapidly at her omni-tool.

Ashley immediately assumed position behind another piece of cover, a section of mined rock, opposite them and began firing assault rifle shots at it as Wrex assumed position behind her and gave covering fire. Garrus and Kaidan went to work on taking out the geth. Marcus watched as one of the hoppers was ripped to shreds, but fired a red laser from its optics, which hit Kaidan and appeared to drain his shields.

_Shit. _

As much as Tali found it hard to concentrate while gunshots went off around her, especially the sound of the armature firing its pulse cannon into their cover, she knew she had to work hard or risk them getting vaporized by that siege pulse. It was death or concentrate...hard. _Kal was right. I was going to become a combat engineer at some point. Now's the time to start._

She loaded every subroutine she could think of into her overload program, and she managed to usurp all the power her inferior blue wire could muster. It was now or never.

"Shepard! My Bluewire is tasked to the max! I have to do this now! Give me cover fire!" Marcus nodded and gave the hand signal for Ashley and Wrex to give it everything they had as he leapt out of cover and fired shot after shot at the armature, making sure it focused on him.

The armature did just that, and its HMG immediately opened up on the vulnerable N7, bullets whizzing past him as it tried futilely to kill him. He watched as Tali spun out of her cover and unleashed a bright blue current of energy into the armature, its shields imploding from the assault before fully exploding.

With the armature's shields gone, Tali spun back into her cover and let off a series of khelish curses when she realized her omnitool had been overwhelmed and shut down on her. _Yeah. She'll definitely need that omni-tool. _Tali immediately whipped out her armageddon and joined Marcus', Ashley and Wrex's combined assault upon the wounded armature, which eventually gave into the horde of gunfire, bits and chunks of armor spinning away as the tank toppled from the onslaught. Within a minute, the armature finally fell apart, destroyed.

"Okay, everyone inside. If the geth have defenses set up out here, you can be damn well sure they're already in time. We're short on time. MOVE!" Marcus demanded as his squad rushed past him. He looked back to see Tali limping up the ramp, visibly fatigued.

"You okay Tali?" Upon closer examination, his eyes widened when he saw blood trailing from the leg she was limping on and immediately went to help her, but she shrugged him off.

"Minor flesh wound. Suit autoseals to stop spread of infection. I'll get a mild fever but nothing series. I'm just tired, go, I'll catch up." The quarian reassured her commander, but it wasn't working with him.

"Geth are crawling all over the place. I'm not leaving you behind just so some sniper can get a lucky shot on you. Go, I'll watch your back." Tali seemed hesitant at first but finally conceded to his point and gradually limped up the ramp, Marcus taking up position behind her. He smiled at the quarian before following her up.

_Such an innocent kiddo brought into a war. And to think I was just like her once._

Any further thoughts of the quarian girl limping ahead of him were thrown away as Ashley opened the mining door up ahead.

_Hades, here we come._

**{Loading...}**

_June 17, 2183_

_1257 hours, Therum Time._

_8 Klicks South of Nova Yekaterinburg, Prothean Dig Site, Therum._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Therum._

_Mission Parameters: Liara T'Soni is located somewhere on Therum. She may have a link to Saren and we think that he may be attempting to recruit her. Her family bond to her mother, Matriarch Benezia, Saren's top commander, might be a valuable asset in the war against the geth. Locate the asari researcher and capture her alive for interrogation._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

It wasn't long before they erupted out into the large cavern that housed the dig site, the mine doors sliding closed behind them. The room was massive in scope, with a single platform holding a ton of research and mining equipment, while the dead remains of dead asari and turian workmen lay around the desolate ruins. A seemingly neverending wave of prothean shield doors occupied the wall up ahead, the blue light lighting up the cavern like an aquarium.

He slowly moved forward, making sure Tali was alright with Kaidan as he surveyed the area around them. The platforms looked stable enough to walk on but if combat were to be intiated in here; it would not end well. He motioned for his squad to move forward, traversing the maze of railings and platforms as they approached what appeared to be the only asari survivor. _Might be T'Soni._

Soon, they finally reached the asari, and she cried out for them to stop. Then they heard another voice; more brutish, more intimidating.

"You've made a bad decision in coming here, human." Marcus watched the source of the voice approach from the shadows, and it turned out to be a huge krogan in dull grey armor that appeared to have seen years of combat. His face was scarred and battered, while his eyes were more blue then the blood red of Wrex's.

There were numerous geth around him, most of them shock troopers and rocket troopers.

"You've made a bad decision in being in our way, Gatatog scum. Even your son would not approve of this." Wrex stated, standing next to Marcus' right to make himself known. Verx simply smiled.

"Uvenk is still young, despite his age, and he will learn. But you Wrex...no, you won't survive the coming harvest. I will make sure of it. And these humans, you, the turian and the...ah...what do we have here? A quarian?" Verx's eyes landed on Tali who was at the back, leaning on her side heavily. _That wound is worse than she's letting in on. Damn quarian selflessness._

He immediately came to the quarian's defense, "Yes...that quarian is named Tali'Zorah. And she's here to help me, put down scum, like you." He said bitterly, earning a chuckle from the krogan, who simply looked at his geth colleagues.

"Say hello quarian...your arch enemies. Doesn't it just kill you to know that these...machines kicked you from your homeworld? Doesn't it just anger you so much that you want to kill them all?" His grin couldn't be any bigger if he tried. Marcus saw right through it. _He's baiting her. Testing her. Seeing what she'll do. _He keyed his combat comms, "Tali. Don't. He's baiting you."

"I know that, Shepard."

Pleased she knew of the unsuccessful attempt at a trap, he switched off his comm and went back to dead eying the krogan.

"What harvest? What the hell are you going on about?" Marcus asked the krogan.

**SOMETHING YOU CANNOT COMPREHEND.**

Everyone looked at the krogan wide eyed, but even the krogan himself seemed surprised.

"What the hell...n-no matter! Its time I got rid of you! Machines, kill these vermin!" The krogan named Verx got out his shotgun while glowing with biotics as his machine minions also raised their weapons and prepared to fight the intruders who were so close to ending their mission.

All it took was Marcus raising his rifle for his entire squad to bare arms on the geth and their krogan leader; Wrex raising his shotgun and holding it like it was a pistol, while Ashley and Kaidan came up behind Marcus, flanking both of his sides, while Garrus took next to Ashley, sniper rifle raised as Tali unsteadily tried to keep her shotgun raised.

_Injury she's got, she'll only get herself killed. _

The next moment was blocked out by a horde of gunfire from both sides as they engaged each other in all out combat. Kaidan met a rocket trooper head on, his omni-tool sparking to life as he seemingly went to punch the geth optics, instead hitting the optics with his fist while also sending a incinerate program into the optics, blasting it too pieces as he then followed up by thrusting the assault rifle into its chest, holding the trigger until he was sure the trooper was nonfunctional.

Ashley attacked a shock trooper with a concussive shot, which stunned the platform long enough for her to close the distance and prime a grenade, thrusting it into the open bit of the geth's armor chasing as she then cleared the blast zone, the grenade exploding, leaving nothing of the trooper she had stuck it in.

Wrex clashed head on with Verx, both of the krogan unleashing attacks comprised of biotics, fists and shotgun blasts. The two war beasts continued to clash in the middle of the battle, comrades from both sides sidestepping so as to not be caught in the confrontation.

Two rocket troopers went to gang up on Garrus, but the turian executed such a perfect headshot on the left one, that any organic would have been stunned. However, these were synthetics. Instead of waiting for the second rocket trooper to prepare, Garrus grabbed the butt of his rifle and shoved it straight into the optics of the trooper, causing the light to flicker and die as it smashed, allowing Garrus to unload a concussive shot into the platform, destroying it for good.

He noticed Tali had taken to sitting down and fighting off the geth, her leg looking worse for wear. It wasn't the minor wound she had said it was, as the infection could be seen through the suit; a big, purple bruise the size of a tennis ball and bleeding; badly. He could hear Tali's occasional sneeze followed by erratic coughing, but she held firm, her shotgun pelting against the incoming geth, taking them down one by one.

A nearby rocket trooper however managed a lucky shot, firing a rocket directly at the quarian. With split-second speed, Marcus threw a grenade to intercept the rocket that would probably leave the quarian a pile of meat, and both of them met in a huge explosion that sent him stumbling alittle. Without thinking, he raced towards Tali and placed his rifle on the ground, moving to check the wound.

"Its...fine...really-" she was cut off as she began another fit of coughing, her voice filled with incongestion.

"Like hell you are! I can see that wound bleeding through the suit! That thing is huge and you need medical attention. Dr. Chakwas can take care of you." Before Tali could retort, Marcus keyed his comm, "Normandy, this is Shepard. Do you read?" If they could hear him, then he would hear a sarcastic remark somewhere about...

"This is SSV Normandy, we do indeed read. What kind of book would you like me to read?" Came Joker's voice through the radio, Marcus rolling his eyes at the expected sarcasm.

"Cut the crap, Joker. We need immediate CASEVAC. Tali is wounded and suffering from a moderate infection. Get down here and prepare for extraction."

"Copy that, Commander. Grid Kilo-Two-Niner looks clear, I'm coming in hot. Standard vector approach. See you at the landing zone Commander, just try not to blow up any volcanoes. I don't want to be swimming in molten sulfur. Joker out."

"Tali, I need to get you out of here. This isn't safe." Marcus stated.

"No! I can still fight! Just, let me rest for a-" Tali pleaded, but was cut short.

"I'm giving you a direct order, Miss Zorah! Cut the crap! I'm not having you die from stubborness, now up on your feet!" Marcus snapped into commander mode. This is why he was considered so fatherly. He looked after his crew so much that he'd even pull authority to make sure they were safe.

"Yes, sir!" Tali did the same and stood up, but she didn't get very far when she saw Wrex being tossed towards the commander.

"Shepard! Look out!" She shouted, trying not to scream as the five hundred krogan continued to fly towards the oblivious human. Without looking, Marcus executed a forward combat roll to the right and dodged Wrex as he slammed into the wall, and the human spectre immediately recovered, turning to face his adversary.

Verx stared at them with a toothy grin, the bodies of his numerous dead geth lying all over.

"Commander Shepard! Fight me! Tell your companions to stay out of this! I want to see how this 'hero' can fight. I won't believe you took down ten thousand batarians until I see for myself."

Shepard's squad looked at him, waiting for his answer. Wrex was already back on his feet and prepared to attack Verx again, but Marcus held out his arm for him to stop.

"He wants a fight? Very well. I'm not a dishonorable man and I'm certainly no coward." With that, Marcus threw his raikou to the ground, followed by his punisher, then his diamond back. He smiled at Verx as the krogan followed suit.

"No sir you're not, but you're not stupid either!" Ashley shouted, and Tali put a hand on his shoulder. Marcus looked at her and chuckled, giving the quarian a thumbs up before moving up and taking his place in the 'arena.' Verx circled the human, who had his eyes fixed on the asari trapped behind the shield, who appeared to be watching very astutely.

When he finally heard the pounding footsteps of someone approaching from behind him, he fell forwards onto his belly, allowing the krogan to pass right over him before leaping back up and jumping on the krogan's back, locking his arms around his neck in a headlock.

But Verx wasn't stupid. Instead of trying to peel the human off, he fell backwards and before Marcus realized what he was doing, he was stuck under the weight of the beast. Releasing his grip and letting out a yelp of pain, the krogan got up and turned to the krogan who was preparing to use his foot to cave his ribcage in, but Marcus rolled to his left, sending his heel barrelling into the krogan's backknee, sending him slamming into the ground as Marcus rolled to his feet.

The krogan tried to get back to his feet, but Marcus was already rushing towards him and he landed a heavy biotic punch just below Verx's crest, causing him to wince in pain, squinting his eye. Seeing as biotics were being brought into the fight, Verx lit up in biotic light and charged forward, unleashing a barrage of biotic assaults.

_I'm no normal Vanguard. I can do one thing they can't._

And with that, Marcus achieved the impossible. With the swoop of a hand, he unleashed a singularity directly inbetween him and Verx. Caught in th sudden well of dark energy, Verx was unable to control his momentum as he was tossed around like a ragdoll inside the sphere of biotics. When the singularity finally imploded, he fell to the ground with a grunt, but didn't get to recover as he was enveloped in Marcus' own energy and tossed away from him and slamming into another wall.

"Impressive...human. But I'm not done yet." Verx declared as he got to his feet.

"Obviously. As you're still standing. N7 motto is, 'An enemy tries to kill you, you make sure you finish the job.'" Marcus said with a cold effiency, no cold smile coming across his features instead it remained blank.

Verx growled in anger as he charged forward, but Marcus simply sidestepped to the side and sent a bioticly-fueled elbow into his back. This, of course, didn't hurt the krogan, but it did stun him long enough for Marcus to sweep him from under his feet and allow him a vantage point over the war beast.

He stood over the krogan battlemaster and put a foot to the krogan's neck, who tried to swat it away but Marcus held firm.

"You just fucked with the hero of Elysium and his squad. Remember that." Without further hesitation, he gathered a ball of dark energy in his fist and slammed it into the krogan's face, the telltale sound of snapping bones heard as Verx's body went limp. He heard Wrex approach him from the side.

"Shit...you're certainly worthy of the battlemaster title, Shepard. Quite impressive. But don't we have that asari to save?" Marcus nodded and they all approached the shield door holding the asari, Marcus ordering Tali to stay seated where she was. With angry mumbling, she finally conceded to his point and stayed seated, her omni-tool appearing as he appeared to check her messages.

It wasn't long before they reached her, and she began talking before they could even speak.

"Are you Commander Shepard? I gather you got my distress call? Thank the goddess! Please, you have to get me out of here! You'll have to find a way around the shield. I activated it to keep the geth out but I must have triggered somekind of security field!" The asari shot at them in rapidfire.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. Are you Liara T'Soni?" Marcus asked.

"Yes. I'm a Prothean Researcher. I was studying these ruins when the geth showed up. Killed my fellow diggers, slaughtered the security team assigned here. I'm the only survivor." Liara stated, hoping these people weren't just lying for her sake.

"We'll get you out." Marcus stated.

"No need to bother. I found it." Kaidan declared, and everyone turned to him to see him meddling with some terminal. Finally, the shield appeared to drop and they were allowed access to the room Liara was held in.

"Well...that was easier than I thought. Although its odd they'd put the panel OUTSIDE. That's like putting up a sign saying 'Useless Shield Here. Just Press a Few Buttons and You'll Get In.' Protheans are odd people." Garrus stated sarcastically, and a few people laughed as the turian accessed the field controls and shut it down, causing the asari to fall to the ground.

After helping her up gently, he patted her on the shoulder.

"We've got a ship ready to pick you up. We need you to come with us. Its to do with Saren and your mother, Benezia." Marcus stated and that was all the incentive Liara needed to follow Marcus and his squad out. After returning to Tali, who had so nicely gathered up all of Marcus' weapons, he grabbed them and attached them before hooking an arm under Tali's and helping her up.

"Come on, we're-" Marcus didn't even get to finsh.

A huge cascade of explosions sounded as the place rocked and bits of rock slammed into the platform 'arena', destroying it completely. Within seconds, stalagmites and bits of cavern rock began to fall from all over, bits of lava appearing in the seems.

"Oh shit..." Kaidan said, a horrified look on his features.

"ERUPTION! WE NEED TO LEAVE! RIGHT NOW!" Liara screamed, and she shot up the ramp, followed by the rest of the group, Marcus lagging behind as he moved with Tali. Within a few moments he felt something warm pressed against his chest and when he looked down, he found Tali holding onto him for dear life. At the rate they were going, they would never make it, so instead...

Without hesitation, he pulled Tali up and held her over his shoulders as he sprinted towards the exit, never stopping to look behind him. It wasn't long before they finally reached the exit and raced into the Normandy's Cargo Hold. They watched as the huge frigate ascended into the atmosphere, the volcano exploding behind them with plumes of lava shooting up everywhere.

"Commander, put Tali down. We need to get her to medical." Shaking out of his trance he gently put Tali down and Garrus and Kaidan continued to aid her as they stepped into the elevator with Chakwas, doors closing behind them.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope buckethead will be alright." Came Ashley's voice from behind him.

"Me too. And, buckethead? Really?" He asked with a grin, Ashley laughing as she shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know. Its catchy. I like it. I think I'll call her that from now on." She said, returning to her station.

_Not unless you want to keep your head._

He chuckled as he continued towards the now once again available elevator. He thought about how Tali had hugged him so tightly.

_She felt warm. Yet, she held onto me like she wanted me to save her. Like she was placing her life in my hands. The last person who did that was..._

"I'm scared sir! I don't know what to do! Shit! PLEASE! Batarians all over the place!"

_Roshia. I failed you. I failed Jenkins. And I won't fail Tali. Is it...love I'm feeling for that quarian? No, can it? Or maybe I'm just getting paranoid. Besides, it would never work out. She's got the suit and I'm a soldier. _Then he remembered his recent words.

_Romance doesn't belong on the battlefield._

_I don't love Tali, she's just part of my crew. I look out for my crew. That's all it is._

The following night, all he could think about was that same question.

_Love or not love?_

There was always that same answer.

_Romance doesn't belong on the battlefield._

_**"**_**Well, its obvious got over that shit. Right?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Nope, he fell in love with Princess Molestia. What the fuck do you think?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"Point taken. So how long was it before shit hit the fan and he found himself in bed with the quarian he said he'd never love?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Why is she so important? What has Tali got to do with this. You want to know about Shepard don't you? How much do you know about him anyway?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"More than you know."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

_**Author's Notes: **_

_**Yes, I know I'm not explaing ANY of these military terms or especially, khelish terms (not to mention hebrew and that asari term Liara used) but I'm trying to find a way of doing it that's unique (do not even dare suggest using the To Survive way. This is Enigma, not TS)**_

_**If you guys could come up with an idea on how to do it, then post it in your review. Much appreciated. AND REVIEW. Please, the continuity of this story depends on it! **_

_**So sorry for this chapter taking so long to come out. I had a significant amount of writer's block, not to mention wanting to play Crysis 2's amazing campaign in preparation for Crysis 3 (which, if you ask Reaver who introduced me to the series, he is very skeptical about) and so forth many other things have happened. Priority missions for the other fanfic as well are also very time consuming and require fucktons of patience. But do not fret, this story is far from dead!**_

_**I was going to say something else, but now I forgot. DAMN IT.**_

_**Anyway, enjoy your week (I won't, bloody year 9 is PUNISHINGLY tedious) **_

_**It will be fun they said. Not tedious they said.**_

_**AH! That's it!**_

_**Tell me in your view if you spotted the halo reference near the start. I'll give you a hint, it has to do with the Mako. ;)**_

_**Also, if any of you are good with deviantart or drawing in general, or know someone who does, I would really appreciate it if you email some to me (when you finish them of course) for a cover art for Enigma. I would prefer to have it depict Earth in the background, with Shepard standing in front, while Tali and Garrus stand at his sides, Tali on the left staring left and vice versa. Enjoy, and the rest is up to you! Do whatever you want with it but it must have at least those! And by anything, I mean anything that isn't rude or retarded. **_

_**Until then, I leave you with my random gaming quote of the day.**_

_**"You're elite soldiers. Well-equipped. SO SOMEONE! GROW SOME BALLS AND KILL THAT TIN FUCK FOR ME!"**_

_**Commander Lockhart, (Anonymous Game)**_

_**Comment in review section if you think you know what quote that was from. Happy hunting! ;)**_

_**PS Aliens Colonial Marines SUCKED BALLS.**_

_**That will be all. xD**_


	11. Chapter 9 Romance Is A Bitch

_December 20, 2250_

_1401 hours. _

_{CLASSIFIED LOCATION}_

_Special Tasks Group Operative Commander Carter Dielheart, Lieutenant Jaris 'Siren' Paltarons._

Today was another normal day. More interrogation, more useless questions, more mindless babbling about Zero-Zero-One's lifestyle. The work had become quite interesting instead of the tedious shit that Carter had actually expected. Ever since the salarian STG started their 'outreach program' after the 'Earth Recession' period following 2190, and began recruiting multiracial agents to train as STG operatives, humans like him, all ex-CIA, had begun getting so used to the job, that they felt like the sneeky bastards themselves.

Carter's callsign was 'Nemesis', but most just called him Carter. Jaris Paltarons, aka Siren, and his fellow comrades from the now defunct Ulysses Squad, were now working in facilities like these, all working towards the same goal; Project Catalyst. Ever since the end of the Post-Apocalyptic Wars of 2194 to 2229, the Alliance had been trying to find ways of utilizing reaper 'nanites' as cybernetic upgrades, their source obviously being the now defunct Cerberus and Shepard himself. The Alliance's goal; to supply powerful upgrades to trainees to essentially transform the alliance marines into supersoldiers. It was risky, but could it be done? Time would tell.

The room was lit up in a vast blue light and many humans, salarians, asari, yahg, raloi and quarians moved to and from the edges of the packed mess hall, all scrabbling for the canteen so as to grab their levo and dextro amino food and drink. Pushing past them, he sat next to his teammate.

"Nemesis! Your session over all ready?" Siren asked, his face creasing in a frown. His armor was white with black stripes, while he wore armor similiar to the blood dragon armor, with more advanced barriers. His APAR assault rifle sat on the table, heating core obviously overused recently. The man was growing a beard, dark brown in color, but it wasn't fluffy; barely making his chin, his hazel eyes gazed into his as he waited for an answer.

"On break actually. They're feeding Zero-Zero-One now. I'm just getting some food. I'm starving." Carter said, pulling in next to his friend, his plate covered in an assortment of vegetables, fried potatoes and two chicken sausages. He began to eat as Siren threw his next question at him.

"So...what bit you get up to?" He asked, and Nemesis easily knew what he was referring to.

"Post-Therum. Tali got injured and he's about to call a meeting of the crew. Just saved Liara in other words." Carter finished, his mouth now full of potato.

"Ha! I'm up to the bit where he just handed Saren's ass to him. Zero-Eleven is WAY more cooperative than Zero-Zero-One, and you'd think he would be the one to concentrate more." Siren replied, and both of them chuckled. _He's right. The man's a stubborn moron. _

"I guess he'll crack eventually. He's in much worse shape than the other subjects. Zero-Twelve is pretty loopy though." Carter stated.

Siren chuckled, "Zero-Twelve? As in 'Loopy Verner'? He's useless. Would have thrown him out by now. Of course you need to go through 'wipe mind clean' regulations but what's the point when there's nothing in there to start with? Everytime I mention 'Shepard' he goes into a mental breakdown. You'd think their brothers or something."

Carter simply nodded in agreement, digging into his sausage as he did. Before he could further enjoy his meal, a voice came over the comm.

"Section Acheron, Squad 5-C, report to the Interrogation Wing. One of the subjects has gone loose. Response team Squad 5-C, report immediately, out." Turning, he watched as two quarian marines, three salarians, a single turian and two geth raced out the door to execute their assigned tasks.

"Must be Zero-Twenty. NOW THAT is someone they need under lock and key. He's like a juggernaut." Siren declared, pointing his fork in the general direction of the interrogation wing.

"Why?" Carter turned back to Siren, completely oblivious to who Twenty was. As far as he knew, only nineteen subjects existed.

"Twenty! You know, the big krogan guy named Grunt!" Siren explained, and Carter widened his eyes in surprise.

"We have him in here! Why didn't they say anything? He's a fucking krogan for fuck sake, you can't let one of those loose without armed guard!" Carter shouted, simply infuriated that he was sleeping in a facility that held a krogan. How many others were there? And what if they held Yahg to? Civilian yahg were bad enough, but a pissed off one?

"Hey, you want to place a complaint, talk to the Alliance brass. Otherwise keep me out of this. I don't make policy around here," Siren stated before looking at his chrono, "And I should get back to it. Hopefully 'ol Bailey is still up for some more." With that, he patted Carter on the back as he returned to it. Carter, for the sake of it, decided to check his omni-tool an realized he had been blissfully unaware of the message on his tool.

_To: Nemesis {Name and Rank Withheld for Security Purposes as per Regulation 150, Article Six}_

_From: Interrogation Wing, Assistant Harrison. _

_Subject: Zero-Zero-One._

_He's waking up sir, and he's waiting for you. Just take it slowly, it seems he's been dreaming lately and is feeling a bit light headed. Take it slow._

_Hopefully this shit can end soon, Catalyst had better pay off for all these people have gone through. Why does interrogation need to be used for a cybernetic upgrade program anyway?_

_From: Interrogation Wing, Assistant Harrison. _

_To: Nemesis {Name and Rank Withheld for Security Purposes as per Regulation 150, Article Six}_

"Well fuck." Carter cursed under his breath as he deactivated his omni-tool and snatched the last sausage off the plate, taking the plate back to the canteen before emptying its contents into the nearby bin and giving it back. He then made his way out of the mess hall, his destination being the interrogation wing.

It wasn't long before he finally arrived at the room and he hit the panel to open the door. It slid open to reveal the human he had been interrogation for quite some time. _So...Therum. Time to find out what happened next._

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER NINE:**

**ROMANCE IS A BITCH.**

_June 17, 2183_

_1301 hours. _

_Debriefing Room, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Knossos System._

_Eden Prime War, Post-Battle._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus sat in his chair, blankly staring at a wall as he waited for his team to arrive for the debriefing. The mission on Therum had gone well, and they had rescued Liara from Verx and his geth. A geth frigate had been in orbit of the planet, but upon the Normandy's escape, the geth frigate had withdrawn all forces on the planet and retreated before the Alliance could arrive.

He was finally relieved of his tedious duties to the wall when the door opened to let Ashley and Kaidan strode in, followed by Wrex, Garrus and their latest addition; Liara. Tali wasn't accompanying them due to her injuries, as she was still restricted to the med bay. _Should check up on her after this. _Everyone assumed their normal positions, Liara taking a seat inbetween Wrex and Garrus. By the time everyone was seated, only Tali's chair remained empty.

With everyone seated, he stood up and moved to the center to address the group.

"That wasn't exactly a textbook operation, but that was damn well done people. Not only did we get Liara out alive, but we killed that Verx asshole and took out a big portion of a geth regiment. I say that's a job well done." He nodded and everyone with a smile, everyone seemingly nodding back until his eyes landed on the only asari in the room; Liara.

"Miss T'Soni, is there anything you can tell us about Saren or your mother Benezia? Do you think they were trying to kill you or capture you? Or maybe rescue you?" He then realized how harsh the last bit had been. _I need to know if she's friend or foe._

"Please, call me Liara. And I really can't help you. My mother left me six years ago and I haven't heard from her since. As for Saren, I don't know very much about him but apparently Verx was there to recruit me or something. Then he started screaming at himself." Liara finished, waiting for the human spectre to analyze the information.

"So you're completely oblivious to the fact that Saren and your mother have an armada of geth and are moving to invade Council Space?" Marcus stated. Liara's shocked expression was all he needed to know she wasn't lying. Noone was that good of a liar.

"Sh-what? My mother? Benezia? She would never do such a thing! She's kind hearted and gentle, not a murderer! How can you say such things!" The asari shouted with anger, but Marcus simply brought up his omni-tool and played the recording of Saren and Benezia they had presented as evidence, which was close to bringing Liara to tears.

"I'm sorry for your loss. I'll have you taken to the Citadel and put under armed guard." Marcus declared, but the asari immediately snapped her look towards him.

"No! I can't crawl away and hide! I have to discover why she's doing this! Please, let me come with you! I have biotic abilities and I'm pretty good with pistols." Liara pleaded with Marcus, her look begging for her to come with him. It was the same look he'd seen Tali give him a few times; the look of youth.

"Very well, I might as well introduce you to the crew then," He began introducing the asari to the entire crew, starting with Garrus before ending with Kaidan, "There are many more you should meet..."

"Like me, Joker, the pilot of this _fine _luxury liner. May I take your order, miss?" Joker's voice came through the comm, and sometimes Marcus wondered if he even bothered to come down from that cockpit. _I'll have to ask about that later. _

"Don't you have a ship to pilot?" Marcus asked the comm.

"And don't you have hot asari babes to flirt with?" Joker retorted. Marcus snorted and laughed, which was copied by Kaidan and Garrus. Ashley wasn't as impressed.

"He would never-" Ashley began, but didn't get to finish.

"Liara is a member of the crew. This is not flirting, this is introduction. I'm sorry, but you'll have to find somewhere else for that Joker. Keep your fantasies under lock and key." Marcus responded.

"Back to Fornax it is then." With that, any further retort from the crew was cut short by Joker disengaging the comms.

"Don't listen to Joker. He's a real jerk sometimes. You get used to him. Now, Liara, may I ask you what in the world you were doing down there on Therum? You looked like you were digging up Prothean ruins." He turned to Liara, very curious as to what the young asari was doing down there.

"I was. Ever since I found some artefacts on my birthworld of Thessia, I had become obsessed with the Protheans. All their vast technology, intergalactic colonies, and their wonderous creations such as the Citadel and Mass Relays. And they vanished. I found it all so very fascinating. That's why I have dedicated my life to discovering why the Protheans disappeared. And they weren't the first. Many other galactic civilizations have just vanished from the galactic map many billions of years. It seems to be a neverending cycle." The asari explained in barely contained excitement.

"Then you have your answer. I have my own theory on why the disappeared." Marcus declared.

"With all due respect Commander I've heard them all, and all of them are wrong. None of them can be proven." Liara began.

"They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines. The Reapers. And if what you said is any indication, the rest of those civilizations fell prey to the same machines. It might be a galactic cycle of extinction." Marcus explained. Liara was extremely shocked.

"The Reapers? Goddess, sentient machines? This all seems very farfetched, but if the Reapers really are that thorough, having left no trace of their existence, then the galaxy really is in danger. This cycle happens every fifty thousand years, and well..."

"...Its time for the next cycle. Which must mean Saren, Benezia and the geth are the vanguard of the Reapers return." Garrus added. Everyone nodded and everyone looked back at him, but it was Ashley who spoke up.

"What about that vision from the beacon? The one from Eden Prime." Ashley asked.

"Beacon? You were touched by A beacon?" Liara asked, a smile creasing her face. Marcus sighed. _Williams, what have you done?_

"Yes. It fed somekind of vision into my mind before exploding. I can't make sense of any of it." Marcus explained to the asari, who immediately stood up and approached him.

"If I may commander, I can help you understand that vision. I need to link my consciousness with yours. My people call it a mind-meld." Liara explained, but it was Ashley who immediately shot up to retort.

"Williams, sit down. If I ever want to understand the vision I'm going to need help." Ashley didn't look reassured, but she immediately sat down, and he turned back to face Liara. "Do it." He asked her, and he felt two, warm blue hands touch the sides of his head as the asari bowed hers down, closing her eyes. She then slowly looked up as she spoke, "Relax Commander."

Feeling his eyes getting droopy, he closed them just as Liara finished, "Embrace eternity!" She opened her eyes, and they were pitch black as night and he felt his mind spring to life as the vision once again plagued his mind. The screaming, the blood, the synthetic roars and those deafening words that always gave him shivers.

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING. **

His eyes shot open as Liara terminated the link with his mind, her hands seemingly holding her hands in midair as she backed off with pure shock.

"Goddess...I've never seen such...whoa...what you're going through Commander it would...it would have destroyed a lesser mind. The visions are vivid, intense, graphic. But its like you said; jumbled and useless. I can't make anything out of it. Its all jumbled and nonsensical. You'd need to think like a Prothean to understand any of it. And unfortunately, there aren't really any Protheans around." Liara explained, falling into her chair with a exhausted look on her face.

"You okay? You look exhausted." Marcus asked her. Liara looked up and for a second her gaze met his before she turned away, "I'm fine. I just need...some rest. Somewhere to sit and let my mind be at peace."

"I'll take you to the medbay where Chakwas can assign you a place to stay. I'll take your stuff to your locker and show you your sleeper pod later. Welcome to the team Liara T'Soni. Also, talk to Tali when your there. She couldn't be here due to her injury," he then turned to the rest of the assembled crew, "Crew dismissed."

Everyone immediately stood up and left, with Liara following Marcus down the steps and into the medical bay. It wasn't long before they were inside and after looking around, they saw Tali, sitting up in the second bed to the opposite door, watching as Chakwas sat next to her and ran scans of the quarian with her omni-tool. Both immediately turned to the door upon hearing it open, Tali's eyes immediately landing on her commander.

Chakwas smiled at them as they walked in, "Shepard, come to check in on Tali?" Chakwas finished up her scans and started up towards Marcus smiling warmly as she did.

"That and to introduce you to Liara T'Soni, our latest squadmate. Liara, this is Medical Officer Karin Chakwas, but we all call her doc or Doctor Chakwas for short or for some as formality." Marcus introduced the two women, and both shaked hands excitedly.

"I guess you have experience in the medical division?" Chakwas asked the asari.

"I'll just leave you two to it. I'm going to check on Tali." Marcus stated before Liara could answer, and both of the women nodded at him as he moved towards the quarian, both of them reentering their evaluation of each other.

"Hey Tali, I was wondering how you were holding up." Marcus asked as he sat up on the bed on her right and watched her. She sat up further until she was resting her back on the wall and looked directly into his eyes, her fingers wringing with each other.

"I'm...good. I just have a minor fever that's...," before she could continue, the quarian sneezed, "not bad enough to keep me off duty. Another day and I should be able to attend my duties as per normal."

"Good. We're heading to Feros now. I want to investigate the geth attack going on there. We'll arrive there in three days so you should be able to accompany us. I hope you feel better." Marcus said, smiling at her. Then he remembered Therum and knew he just had to ask. Scratching the nape of his neck, he turned to her awkwardly, "Um...about what happened on Therum..."

Through Tali's mask, he could see her blue eyes expand suddenly in shock as she cupped her vocalizer and went on a huge stuttering spree.

"I-I-I that was...um...I...didn't mean to...I just...I didn't want to think that...I...I'm...a...this is so embarrassing." Tali declared, trying to hold one three-fingered hand over her visor to shield her emotions, even though it wasn't nessacary. _That hug felt so good, but now I'm totally regretting it. Why did I let my feelings get the better of my judgment? I got intimate with my superior officer! What if I had done that to Kal or my father during a meeting?_

"Can we just pretend that never happened?" Tali finally said, no stuttering involved this time.

"Sorry, can't do that. Why did you hug me Tali? What made you think that was nessacary?" Marcus said with a mock angry tone.

"I thought you'd protect me! I've got a-" _a YOU FOOL! Don't say that! Imagine the redicule you'd get! How disgusted he'd be! _

"Got a what?" Marcus asked, no venom held in his voice.

_Now you've done it. Cornered yourself you stupid girl. What are you going to say? I have a crush on you and you should just forget about it because you'd rather have Ashley or that asari? Why would he want to be involved with you anyway? He can't even see your face or kiss you whenever he wants! He's far better off with Ashley and the asari! I doubt you're even on his list of who to be with!_

"Nothing." Tali responded curtly, turning her gaze away from the Spectre.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Marcus asked, and Tali thanked him mentally for not pressuring the subject.

"I'm fine, Shepard. Really." Tali reassured him and Marcus simply gave her a warm smile that always seemed to make her melt into her seat.

"Well, I've got reports to write out. Tell me if you need anything." With that, Tali gave another attempt at a human salute, but once again failed and resigned to a simple nod. Chuckling, he saluted her back before reapproaching the two women he had left before.

"So, we found a place for our asari researcher?"

Chakwas nodded and turned towards him, "She'll be helping me in the medbay. I've given her my old office in the back. Now you know where to find her if you need her." With that, Chakwas retreated to her new desk while Liara moved into her new room to check it out. Letting her be, Marcus decided to leave the medbay and headed for his cabin.

_Time for a hot shower._

Then he remembered he had just been on Therum.

_Cold shower it is._

**{Loading...}**

_June 18, 2183_

_0400 hours. _

_Mess Hall, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for Attican Beta Cluster._

_Eden Prime War._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

All night she tossed and turned. She tried her best to sleep. She tried again and again and again. She tried filtering old quarian folk music into her audio filters, she tried drinking cold water, she tried everything, and she failed.

She could not sleep. Why?

It was too quiet.

Now many of the crew may have found it odd that quarians found it hard to sleep when it was quiet, but when you're a quarian, you tend to get used to sleeping to noise. _Especially back on the fleet. _This ship was just too advanced to let her sleep. Finally surrendering to being awake, she got up out of bed and decided to have a early breakfast and headed out into the mess hall. Hitting the door panel, she made her way through the door and out into the hall.

But when she turned right she found the one person she wished wasn't there. Shepard was on one side of the table, his face buried deep in work. She shook away the feelings she had from the previous day and moved up towards him, which he took notice of, moving his head to look at her.

"Tali? What are you doing up so early? You're shift doesn't start until Zero-Eight-Hundred." Marcus asked, half happy that he finally had a distraction from his tedious and half-annoyed that he couldn't finish it. Eventually, the battle of the mind was won by the former, and he dropped the datapad on the table.

"Couldn't sleep." Tali said bluntly and to the point, sitting down next to the spectre. Reaching behind her, she put a hand through the dextro food crate and pulled a single tube of nutrient paste, feeding it into her mouth piece.

"Nightmares, eh? I get them to." Marcus asked the quarian, his face looking worn. His eyes were bloodshot, while his face looked drained of energy. A man exhausted.

"No. Its too quiet to sleep." Tali said, not ignorant of the last bit Shepard said. _This man...the man who seems so indestructible, has nightmares? I guess its true what they say, 'nobody's perfect.' _Upon Tali's explanation of her insomniac state, Marcus faced her with a raised brow.

"Too quiet? How can you not sleep to quiet? That's how I sleep. My mum used to say that 'when its quiet, you drift off like a little angel.'" Marcus recounted with a little humor in his voice at the memory, a grin gracing his lips. Tali didn't quite understand what an angel was, but she guessed it must have been a human thing.

"Things are different on the fleet. Our ships are so worn down and old that they all make loud humming sounds when the engines are on. It was annoying at first, but we gradually got used to it and fell asleep to it. When there's no sound on one of our ships, it means a engine has died or even worse...a blocked air filter. I know that's not the case here, but its old instinct."

"'Old Habits die hard.' I see what you mean." Marcus said, and he suddenly felt sorry for the quarian. _All the things her people went through. Their ancestors pay for their mistakes and they still suffer greatly for it. These people are worse than the batarians. At least they HAVE a homeworld. The quarians have a fleet of dying, decomissioned ships._

"Yeah, like that. I guess I'll get used to it. Its just alittle scary, that's all." Tali said, finally finishing her tube of nutrient paste.

"Tell me more about your people. For starters, what is with the 'nar Rayya' bit of your name?" Marcus asked, ready to delve deeper into the world of quarian culture. Tali smiled at the prospect of teaching the human more about her people, and began to explain.

"Well, _nar _in my people's language means 'born on' and the Rayya is one of the three liveships that keep my people alive."

"So 'nar Rayya' basically means 'born on Rayya.' So you were born on a liveship, correct?" Nodding to confirm Marcus was right, the human smiled at his victory.

"Although it doesn't remain that way. That's what pilgrimages are about. We are sent out when we become of age to do so, and we leave the fleet to find something of value to prove our worth. That's what pilgrimages are. Once we return, we present the gift to the captain of the ship we wish to join. If its accepted, and it usually is, we then join that crew and earn the 'vas' in our name, which replaces the 'nar.'"

"Vas?" Marcus asked.

"It means 'Crew of'. Say if I was joining the...Neema," _And I will once my pilgrimage is over_, "I'd become 'Tali'Zorah _vas _Neema.' But if the ship is destroyed, you gain the 'vas ri' in your name, which means 'Crew of Defunct.'"

"That makes sense. I guess that kind of makes you 'Tali'Zorah vas Normandy' doesn't it?" Marcus asked, and Tali felt her heart skip a beat. _vas Normandy. That sounds...nice if I say it aloud._

"Not really. Technically your ship isn't part of the Migrant Fleet, so it doesn't count, not to mention I haven't presented a gift to the captain."

"Yeah you have." Marcus stated clearly.

"What? But-what then? What have I presented?" Tali asked the captain.

"Well, there's the evidene and then there's..." Marcus immediately stopped, cutting himself off.

"What?" Tali asked again.

"You." Marcus said simply causing Tali's heart to skip two beats. Marcus cursed in his mind. _You? The...fuck are you doing you retard! What happened to 'romance doesn't belong on the battlefield'? Are you chucking that out the window? No, stop this now! This is ludicrous! She probably doesn't want you anyway! She's better off with a member of her own species! _

"What..." Tali tried to form a coherent sentence, but she failed. _Did he just say that? No! No! NO! He must have meant it in a different context. Just because he called you a gift to him doesn't make it a romantically involved comment! Oh you blind stubborn fool, that's exactly what it means!_

Inside, Marcus' otherside fought against his logic.

_Do it. Have you seen the way she moves around you? The way she talks to you? The way she hugged you? The way she LOOKS at you? The evidence is all there, you just have to notice! She has a thing for you, and you should act upon it. Do you really think Hunter would want you moping around like this? She'd tell you the samething! Tell the damn girl! Or are you too much of a fucking coward to do it? Its not hard. Six simple words, 'I have a crush for you.' SAY IT!_

But Marcus wasn't having any of it.

"Nothing. I didn't say anything. What do you think I said? I certainly didn't mention anything like that. I don't know what you're talking about." Marcus stated without even thinking. _Smooth dickhead, REAL smooth. Now, like her, you're a blabber mouth who can't keep his mouth shut worth a dime. Yet again, even she knows better._

"Nevermind." Tali said, effectively ending the conversation, "Anyway, do you mind if..." Tali turned only to find Marcus drifting off to sleep.

"Shepard? Are you betting bored of listening to me? Or are you tired?" she said loud enough to make Marcus jump out of the seat.

"Oh sorry. Your voice is just so...soothing." _Please let her take that the wrong way._

"Um...thanks. I think." Tali responded. _Keelah, this is awkward. Need to find a way out. _To make matters worse, she felt Marcus' hips pressing into hers as he drifted off. Her face lit up like a oven and she immediately slid into a chair nearby, trying to keep her distance before she unnessacarily rips her mask off and kisses him. _This crush is pathetic. A relationship with Peta could work better._

She regretted that thought. _Relationship? Peta? Me? Could those words even belong in a sentence let alone actually happen? No. Just...no. I need to change this subject and fast. _Luckily, Marcus had the same plans.

"Well, I'm going to bed. I'm tired and need the few hours of rest. I hope you...find a solution to your problem." With that, Marcus retreated to his cabin. Without looking back, he slapped the door control and ran in, slamming it again to close the door before backing up into the wall.

_What...the...fuck. That was awkward. How can an army of geth not destroy me, but a simple quarian girl makes me melt like a six year old boy when he's punished for committing a bad thing? I need to sort this out. _

_Romance doesn't belong on the battlefield. _

_But does that even count anymore? What if I don't care? What if I go for it and tell her the next morning. _He decided to test the words in his mouth.

"Hey Tali, didn't know if you know this, but I have a huge crush for you." The words felt bitter in his mouth.

_This is idiotic. Romance doesn't...argh! No, that doesn't count anymore! I don't care! If I'm going to tell her that I like her, then I have to do it in a non-abrupt way. Preferably one that doesn't involve shoving the words 'Join Me In Bed' in her face...mask...whatever. Besides, how can a relationship work with her? We wouldn't even be able to do what normal couples do! Kissing, hugging...sex. Damn it, how can I be thinking of that right now! _

_My logic says no, it won't work._

_My emotions say she's the right one. _

_But organics are people of emotions aren't we?_

He carefully thought out what he was going to do. Finally, he glimpsed at his desk, having given up telling her directly. But he had another idea; one that might just work. Of course, he was doing it because she needed it, but it didn't make it that much less important.

Without hesitation, he collected the items he needed and began his task.

**{Loading...}**

_June 18, 2183_

_0959 hours._

_Cargo Hold, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for Attican Beta Cluster._

_Eden Prime War._

_Marksman Garrus Vakarian._

Obviously he had been concentrating on something or had a blindfold on, because he certainly hadn't noticed the two HUGE scorch marks on the side of the Mako. Thanks to the vehicle's armor, whatever caused the marks hadn't ripped their armor wide open. It was a simple matter of getting rid of the marks. That's where he now found himself struggling.

Sighing heavily, he returned to his tedious work of getting rid of the marks, while he felt Chief Williams' eyes gazing into his skull. He tried not to growl in frustration and demand why she was looking at him as if he was a geth, and ignored the human female as he continued working.

But there was only so much resistance in a man before he would finally break. This turian was hitting breaking point, and he really didn't know if Wrex was on good terms with Ashley; or if the krogan would use it as an excuse and come to the 'rescue' of the human marine. Spinning around, he faced the human.

"Is there something you need or do you insist in looking at the back of my skull?" Garrus asked angerily, seeing that Ashley was little over a meter away from him, leaning on her left hip with arms crossed. Upon seeing Garrus turning around, she attempted to retreat, but the turian wasn't letting her go. She stopped and spun back around to answer his question.

"Yeah there is something I need." Ashley declared.

"Then tell me so I can answer you and return to my work. This Mako does need scrubbing." Garrus said, pointing at the scorch marks.

"Get the fuck off my ship." Ashley demanded, stepping forward for emphasis. The turian simply held his position, crossing his arms.

"YOUR ship? Last time I checked, Shepard was in charge. If he wants me here, I'll be here. What is your problem anyway? First you try to act all nice with Tali and now you're a bitch all over again?" Garrus answered with the same hostile tone Ashley was using, albeit more forceful. The human didn't give in however.

"ACT nice? Hell, I tried my best! But talking to aliens is like trying to personificate a teddy bear! I feel like I'm growing insane! Now he brings that asari aboard! Next he'll be asking to recruit salarians! You damn aliens-" Ashley's words became nothing but a whisper as Garrus disappeared in thought, realizing who she was talking to. _Of course._

"Is this all about the First Contact War?" Garrus interrupted her, stopping Ashley on the spot.

"What?" she asked dumbfounded, surprised the turian could see through her so easily.

"You seem to focus your hostility on me every single time! You're polite to Tali, nice to Liara when you want to be and you stay clear of Wrex, but everytime I appear its all 'let's yell down the turian' time. So I'll ask again, is this about the First Contact War?" Garrus responded, and waited as Ashley entered pensive thought.

"YES! Yes goddamn it, it is! Because of your fucking people my grandfather was forced to surrender and got my whole family blacklisted! We were military to the blood and they made us rookies permanently! I could be a commander right now, but instead I'm being lead by bloody sergeants! Do you have any idea what this feels like? To be cast aside like your existence means nothing!?"

"Yes, I do. My old C-Sec Captain treated me like that. He cast aside my opinions, turned me into his own personal pet to run his errands. He let criminals walk free and whenever I complained about 'in-justice' he'd justify it. So yes, I know exactly what it feels like." Garrus answered in kind.

"Yeah well good for fucking you. This is pointless. Just...keep your distance turian." Ashley stated before slowly backing off.

"Yeah turian, keep your distance, she might scratch you." Wrex's gruff voice came from behind them, and both of them turned to see the krogan watching from his position in the corner.

"Mind your own damn business, krogan." Ashley ordered.

"Keep quiet, pyjak. I'll talk when I want to, if I want to. Its not in your place to decide. Remember, cast aside?" Wrex chuckled at his own joke as Ashley shook her head in anger and returned to her work bench, pulling down an assault rifle that recently had taken a scorch mark and began polishing it.

When Wrex's gaze left the human and he turned back to Garrus, he saw the turian giving him a firm glare.

"What?" Wrex demanded.

"You're such an asshole." Garrus stated bluntly before turning back to his console and continuing with his work.

"I just saved your ass, ungrateful pyjak. This ship is full of idiots. I need some Ryncol." Wrex stated without a care what anyone else thought and walked into the elevator. Just as the door began to close, Fred stepped in and motioned for Wrex.

"Wait! Mr. Wrex could you please inform Shepard that the items he ordered are here!" Wrex glared down at the human.

"What am I? A messenger? Do it yourself." Wrex said, once again reaching for the control panel.

"The delivery may involve a shotgun..." Fred mumbled as he walked off and Wrex froze in place for a moment.

"Consider it done." Wrex said in almost rapidfire, something not commonly heard from the krogan, and he hit the panel again and ascended to the Crew Deck in the elevator. Garrus watched the exchange and Fred as he returned to his post.

"You cheeky bastard." Garrus said, chuckling.

"Krogan are hard to please. He must not be krogan." Fred said, both of them chuckling harder this time.

_I'm liking humans already._

Then he glanced at Ashley.

_Almost all of them._

**{Loading...}**

_June 18, 2183_

_1010 hours._

_Cockpit, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for Attican Beta Cluster._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Pressly, Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau._

"So you're telling me your disease, Vrolik's Syndrome, it causes frail bones? That's why you can't ever leave this damn cockpit?" Marcus finally asked, and Joker gave a sigh of relief. It was about time this discussion came to an end, it was starting to hurt his bones more than standing up would.

"Exactly. Any attempt at standing up would be met with the shattering of bones and lots of internal bleeding. And yes, its completely untreatable, there is no cure. So before you ask if I can be cured, NO, I can't. Now can we drop this and move to something else? This conversation is making me very uneasy."

"Of course Joker, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable." Marcus declared and immediately turned to Pressly who seemed to be lingering on the side of the cockpit.

"Something on your mind, Pressly?" Marcus asked the navigator, who turned to acknowledge the spectre's question.

"Just thinking about Eden Prime, how we lost Jenkins and how we just saved Miss T'Soni from the same fate. What do we expect to find at Feros? According to the debrief, the colony recently came under siege from geth forces." Pressly stated.

"True. But what you didn't read is that a sizable security force posted their for a corporation called ExoGeni was stationed near the main colony; Zhu's Hope. With luck, we'll be there in three days and be able to lift the siege and push the geth off the planet."

"But what are the geth doing there in the first place? What's so interesting about a human colony in the ass-end of nowhere?" Joker spoke up.

"The colony is built ontop of a Prothean ruin. An abandoned, lost city if I heard right." Marcus informed them.

"Yeah, and the geth are totally there for the view." Joker said sarcastically.

"I agree with Joker, Commander. The geth are here for something, and it definitely ain't ruins. But what?" Pressly pondered.

"We'll find out soon enough. For now we should just take some rest, get fed in preparation for hitting Feros. If the hostile enemy count is correct, we'll have alot of resistance. Possibly armatures and more of those hoppers if we're unlucky. Keep me updated on our progress." Marcus ordered, before leaving down the flight deck.

However, upon moving down, he saw Wrex coming up and approaching the cockpit. But when he saw Marcus, he headed straight for him.

"Something you need Wrex?" Marcus asked politely as they stopped infront of each other.

"Fred wanted me to tell you that the items you requested just arrived." Wrex informed him before leaving back for the Crew Deck.

"Goody." Marcus said to noone in particular as he followed Wrex down the stairs but broke off and entered the elevator, hitting the panel and the door slid shut to begin its descent. It wasn't long before he arrived in the Cargo Hold. He immediately turned right and approached Fred.

"Got something for me, Fred?" Marcus asked the officer, and he immediately looked up at his commander, smiling.

"Certainly do sir, your new omnitools and shotgun just arrived. I also placed an extra order for a HMWSG Pistol, you know, for our quarian friend." Fred reached under the bench and pulled out the items, laying them across the table; six HMOT omnitools, a single HMWSG Master Shotgun and a single HMWSG Pistol.

"Thank you Frederics, you did good. While you're at it, could you place an order for more food rations, levo and dextro? We've been running low ever since Therum." Fred simply smiled and nodded as Marcus picked up the items and crossed the room, handing omnitools to Garrus and Ashley, and then Wrex when he finally came down. He then gave one to Tali, and then Kaidan on the upper level. He apologized to Liara for not getting one for her, but she simply said that her model was a Nexus, and was sufficient enough.

He then returned to Tali.

"Hey, Tali. Fred was nice enough to get you a new pistol." Upon hearing 'new', Tali spun around to face Marcus, who held a pistol out for her to take. She hesitated, but only for a moment as she eventually took it from Marcus' hands and tested it in her grip.

"You like it? That's a spectre's pistol right there, state-of-the-art, hasn't seen action yet. Its not like those second-hand cheap pieces of scrap you get out there." Tali simply nodded as she finished examining the pistol's glowing red lines and holstered it on her hip.

"One more thing, are you up for that sparring session at some point?" Marcus asked the quarian as she froze in her tracks. _Ancestors, completely forgot!_

"Um...okay...sure. What...time? Today maybe?" Tali asked.

"Not today I'm afraid, work to do, reports to finish up. How about tomorrow let's say...midday, one o'clock? I've got some moves I'd like to show you that could help with your hand-to-hand combat skills."

"That sounds...great. I'll just have to ask Adams to give me a shift break at that time." Marcus smiled and for a moment both of them looked into each other's eyes. However, it didn't last long as both of them realized what they were doing.

_What the fuck was that?_

_Ancestors, what did I just do?_

Shaking themselves from their trance, they said goodbye and went back to their duties; Tali at her console, and Marcus to his cabin to finish writing up his reports.

"Tali, I've got another job for you." Adams' voice came across the room, and the young quarian turned to face the engineer as he approached.

"Yes, Adams? What would you like me to do?" Tali asked, turning her body to fully face the chief engineer as he stopped in front of her.

"There's some grime clogging up the vents and I need you to clear it out. I'd get my staff to do it but they're...too afraid to do so." Adams said with half-hearted amusement.

"Why? Its just grime." Tali asked.

"Well...they're are spiders in the vents. We humans have...arachnophobia. Its a powerful fear we have..." Adams said, half creeped out by the thought that arachnids were crawling around the ship.

"They can't be that bad. I'll go clean it out." Tali informed him and immediately pulled out a vent hatch and crawled in. Adams smiled at the quarian's bravado as he returned to his post.

"Brave girl. I just hope her suit has a portable, built-in toilet." Adams said to himself as he grinned.

**{Loading...}**

_June 17, 2183_

_1716 hours._

_Species 37 Holding Pen, Underground Facility, Zhu's Hope, Feros._

_Eden Prime War._

_Mission Parameters: Land on Feros and gain the cipher from the Thorian. The cipher should assist in piecing together the visions while Benezia interrogates the Rachni Queen on Noveria. Once the cipher is gained, order the geth to wipe out the colony. Leave no evidence of our presence here. Make sure the Thorian does not survive._

_Prophet Saren Arterius, Sovereign, Commando Captain Shiala R'Ness. _

Saren sneered at the colonists as he and his geth and asari followers strode through the colony, not a single colonist opening fire on them. Up above stood Sovereign, the largest warship in existence, bearing down on the colony like a organic would an insect. The colonists gazed up at the ship in awe and shock, while a simply geth battlegroup circled the ship, with a single frigate having already broken off to deal with ExoGeni Headquarters.

Numerous geth platforms; mostly trooper class and asari commandos lead by Shiala moved alongside them, making sure the colonists didn't try anything. Saren simply ignored Sovereign's servants as he moved towards his main objective; the freighter that covered the the facility he had to gain access to.

It wasn't long before he had reached the freighter and stood beside it. A strong pain tried to enter Saren's mind.

_**You bring your machine servants to apprehend me, to learn what I know, to gain the cipher of which the protheans I consumed held so very long ago. You are foolish. You will be mine to control.**_

**ORGANIC. YOUR ATTEMPTS ARE FRAIL. MY SERVANT IS HERE TO GAIN THE CIPHER IN WHICH YOUR INFERIOR FORM POSSESSES. YOU WILL GRANT ACCESS, OR FACE ANNILIHATION LIKE YOUR ILK. YOUR FELLOW THORIANS DID NOT SURVIVE THE HARVEST, AND YOU WILL NOT EITHER IF THE CIPHER IS NOT SURRENDERED.**

_**And so enters the voice of the machine-destroyers. The ones who's numbers darkened the skies and exterminated all that was alive. You're bringers of destruction, you are the reason my people no longer exist. The cipher will be yours, but at a cost. Enter at your own discretion.**_

With that, the Thorian ordered one of its own servants, a colonist, to lift the freighter, revealing the facility entrance below. Saren motioned for his troops to follow, and together they journeyed into the darkness that was the Thorian's cage.

It didn't take long to traverse the vast staircase that descended into the Thorian's prison, and finally he and his servants arrived in the hidden facility. It was run down and dirty, the walls looking like ancient stone carvings, while the floor was a haphazard mess. The stairs were close to complete collapse, while many of the stone support columns looked so aged, they could fall apart. The facility was a like a spire; a circular tower with numerous levels and the one goal in the middle; the Thorian itself.

It was a huge, ugly creature, very plant-like in its appearence. It had four slits for eyes on its face, while tentacle like appendages dripped from the bottom of its 'head', with the mouth inside the tangled mess. The creature was a huge blop of biomass, with numerous huge appendages sticking out and grasping onto the sides of the tower like arms. It was a sicky green in color, while liquid of mutual color dripped from its mouth and collected in a sickly color on the ground.

All around the room, green sacs stuck to the walls while green, humanoid forms lay on the ground, arms curled up in a fetal positions, thousands of them all over the room. He ignored them as he stopped a few meters away from the Thorian.

"These creatures...look human." Shiala commented, but the asari was ignored as Saren began to speak.

"You hold the cipher, something of which I need, but you also mentioned a price. Name it, and you shall have it. But no tricks, or Sovereign will not hesitate in using its monstrous power to destroy this place."

_**Your threats ring hollow, young reptile. You speak of authority, yet you old no wisdom. I have lived millions of years, watched as civilizations rose and fell, only for my people; the Thorian, to thrive. We would consume them, absorb their knowledge. It is this knowledge in wish you seek, and you are correct, I require something in return. Something in which this old growth needs. **_

"As I said, name it, and do it quickly. Sovereign is not one who values patience." Saren demanded, watching the giant plant with a weary eye.

_**A sacrifice. **_

Saren stood their with a wide-eyed expression. _A sacrifice? But of what kind?_

"Elaborate." Saren ordered.

_**One of you must surrender your form to become a part of me, so I may consume its knowledge for other cycles to come. The Reapers will come, and they will consume all of you, but I shall make sure your knowledge is not wasted. Upon that sacrifice, I will meld with your mind and with that meld, I shall give you the cipher. **_

Saren nodded, understanding the creature's intentions. He looked around the room. A geth platform wouldn't work, so that left the asari.

"I will do it sir." Shiala stood forward, dropping her assault rifle. Saren nodded and motioned for Shiala to step forward and towards the Thorian's mouth. Before she could second-guess, the Thorian's tentacles wrapped around the asari and consumed her, her body disappearing inside the mass. Saren's world suddenly was filled with the visions, and he watched as the thorian inserted the cipher into his mind.

The process proved to be fast but agonizing, but it worked, and Saren finally understood the visions completely, recognizing Ilos. _So now we just need to locate the Mu Relay so we can get there. _

_**You now have the cipher and I have gained the knowledge of the asari sacrifice. Now leave and let me be at peace.**_

"That won't be happening. Your species should have died out last cycle," Saren turned to his geth and asari minions, "Destroy this place and the rest of the colony, leave no survivors. Tell our frigate to kill all ExoGeni employees, no survivors." With that, Saren turned to leave the facility, only to hear the Thorian give an inhumane screech.

_**HOW DARE YOU DEFY ME. I WILL NOT BE DESTROYED LIKE THIS.**_

Before anyone knew what the thorian meant, they watched as the disgusting humanoid forms exited their fetal positions and turned to face the group. Saren wanted to vomit at the sight. They had once been humans, but their bodies had been changed. Their skin had been peeled away, leaving their muscles which were now a sickly green. The area where their eyes had once been had been gorged out leaving nothing but black, lifeless holes.

The Thorian's adjutants stormed towards them, their sheer numbers becoming overwhelming. The first victim was one of the unlucky commandos, where she tried to take one out with a biotic punch but instead got a face-full of acid; the creature puking it from its mouth like vomit. The asari screamed in agony as the acid ruined her features and let her face a melted husk.

The geth followed suit, with the acid burning their circuitry and destroying their optics. Saren's body pulsed with biotic energy as he used throw and warp to keep the creepers at bay and allowed him to escape. The rest of his team weren't so lucky; with only three troopers of the ten troopers and six asari making it out alive.

They managed to escape the facility just as the freighter closed again, and Saren felt himself picked up off the ground and thrown into the ground as one of the asari colonists attacked him. The other colonists followed suit, but Saren simply repelled their pathetic attacks with biotic barriers and he continued running until picked up by Sovereign and taken off world.

**ALLOW THE INFERIOR MACHINES TO DEAL WITH THE COLONY. WE HAVE WHAT WE NEED, NOW WE ONLY NEED THE ASARI TO FINISH HER MISSION AND ACQUIRE THE INFORMATION WE NEED. **

"She'll get it done Sovereign."

"Then Operation: Harvest can begin."

**"Seems like one of those fucked up moments. I guess Feros was pretty scarring."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"It wasn't so much as scarring as it was creepy. Those Thorian Creepers gave us a run for our money. But to know that, that plant-thing controlled the whole colony- that was scary."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"I'm sure it was. And what about Shepard's relationship with Tali'Zorah?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"I don't see why that fascinates you so much. What is it you really want? Dating advice?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Just answer the fucking question. Its a matter of colonial security." **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"You think I'm retarded? I doubt that the relationship of a dead man has anything to do with colonial security." **

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"It does when Terra Firma is on the brink of war with Rannoch."**

**- Carter Dielheart. **

_**Author's Notes:**_

_**Anyone played Crysis 3? If you haven't, GET IT, the campaign was amazing! The ending is fantastic and the story is really good. I recommend it. **_

_**And I haven't forgotten about Mass Effect 3 How It Could Have Happened, its just I've gotten caught up in alot of things. That fanfic is by no means dead. If it was, you'd know about it.**_

_**To signify how satisfied I am with Crysis 3, I will be writing a one-shot fanfic on Crysis and on the events following Crysis 3. Do not read it if you haven't finished the game, as it will contain spoilers.**_

_**Now if you don't mind, I think I might risk Crysis 3 on Supersoldier difficulty. Wish me luck! **_

_**;)**_


	12. Chapter 10 Spark That Lights The Fire

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TEN:**

**THE SPARK THAT LIGHTS THE FIRE**

_June 19, 2183_

_1304 hours._

_Captain's Cabin, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Attican Beta Cluster, In FTL inbound for Feros._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

And so he anxiously paced around the cabin, eagerly awaiting Tali. _How do I tell her? Do I just give her the device and call it quits or do I give her the device AND tell her I like her? Come on, think! You're an unstoppable soldier and all of a sudden a girl makes you feel like some kind of defeatist. And is it just me, or is it hot in here?_

Marcus suddenly stopped and his eyes scanned the room, looking for the source of the heat. They were in space, so the ship was cold most of the time, making aircons redundant and unnessacary. When he finally stopped looking around his cabin and thought about it for a second, he realized HE was the source of the heat. _Oh that's just wonderful..._

Before he could fall onto the ground in hyperventilation, he heard a knock on the door. He stiffened up. _Okay, okay, okay. Let's do this. Act professional, then drop the bomb later on. Tell her that...tell her nothing! Just...stay calm and you'll figure something out. Anderson said I have a way with words. Hopefully he's not wrong._

Taking a deep breath, he turned towards the door. "Enter" he said clearly, and the door slid open to show the young quarian standing in the doorway. Her gaze immediately fell straight on the Commander and she blushed under her mask. "Keelah..." Marcus frowned and looked at her with an awkward look.

"What?"

"You're...um...uh...sort've...got no shirt on..." Tali stammered.

Looking down, Marcus noticed she was right. All he had on was simple pants. _Great, you fucked up already you dumbass. _Quickly and swifty, Marcus moved through his dresser, looking for a shirt. When he found it, he slipped it on and returned to where Tali was still nervously standing, wringing her fingers.

"Sorry about that. So, you ready?" The spectre asked the quarian, and she seemed to stop for a moment before turning to face him, "Commander, I've been meaning to tell you something, its...sort of important." _Yes girl, just tell him. Face the rejection and get it over with. Better to know now then never. _

"I'm all ears." Marcus said and upon seeing Tali cock her head in confusion he sighed and nodded for her to continue.

"Well...I sorta...I...ah...um...," _JUST SAY IT, _"You know what, forget it, its not important." _I can't do this. I can't just drop this on him. What if he gets angry or creeped out and orders me to leave the ship? I can't do this. I just can't..._

"Are you sure? It does sound important." Marcus asked again.

"I'm sure. Now, can we begin training?" Tali asked, trying to change the subject from her close admission.

"Of course. First I'm going to teach you some basic maneveurs. I know these'll be useless against geth, but it never hurts to have them just in case. As the old human saying goes, 'Better to have it and not need it, then to need it and not have it.'"

"A wise idiom." Was Tali's only response as they immediately jumped into their training.

Four hours later, and Marcus sat on his bed, dripping with sweat. Tali leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground, annoyed that she couldn't wipe the sweat from her face. Instead, she activated her persperation disposer and let it do the slow work. During those four hours, they had learned basic and advanced fighting moves, ranging from punches and blocks, to knife defense and kicks.

By the end of the session, she had left Marcus with multiple, minor bruises, which he simply shrugged off, congratulating her instead of chastising her.

"Well...Tali...that was...excellent. You certainly...know how to...kick. My ribcage...really...hurts." Marcus said, trying to chuckle through his clenched teeth.

"I'm so sorry, Commander. I didn't mean to." Tali apologized, sounding ashamed of herself.

"Don't be. I was congratulating you. Besides if I couldn't take a simple quarian kick to the ribcage then what kind of soldier would I be now, hmmm?" Marcus joked.

Tali giggled, "I guess you would be a pretty poor soldier." Tali then exaggerated her exhaustion by pretending to not fall asleep.

"Hey, you're not falling asleep here. You have a sleeper pod you know." _Thank god my idiotic brain didn't suggest the bed. MY bed. But do I still want to tell her how I feel? Besides, how the hell am I developing a crush for the girl so quickly? I barely know her! But I guess there are those hips, then that sexy accent...AH! Your getting off track! Just tell her already!_

"Then I guess I'll go then." Tali declared before getting back up.

"No! Wait...I...I have something I want to give you." Marcus pleaded. Tali turned away from the door she was about to leave through and turned towards Marcus as he went to his desk to retrieve the item. When he returned, he motioned for her to open her hands. She did as asked, and a small, humming object dropped into her palm.

"What's this?" Tali asked, examining the item.

"A buzzer. You press this button and it makes a loud humming noise." Marcus explained, pointing at the red button on the side of the rectangular object.

"Thank you but...what's it for?" Tali asked, turning to look at Marcus now.

"Its...I thought it'd...help you sleep. You can't sleep in the quiet so I thought I'd...well...help you sleep using noise." Marcus explained further, and Tali nodded her head in realization.

"You really didn't have to..." Tali didn't get to finish as Marcus placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Tali...there's something else I must tell you."

Tali's heart stopped in her chest. _Keelah, what? Have I done something wrong? Was it my outburst at Pressly for his racist comment? Did I endanger someone on Therum or am I becoming a liability? Ancestors help me!_

"Y-Y-Yes?" Tali stuttered.

Marcus frowned. _Its now or never. Do it. Now._

"I like you." Marcus shot out.

"Um...well thanks." Tali said, sighing in relief.

"No I mean...I like you. Like ALOT. As in...um...ever heard of romance?" Marcus asked, and Tali's look, even through the mask, could be recognized as shock, "Yeah, I like you in that kind of way."

Tali felt like she'd faint. Completely offguard. _Did he...just say that? No, this is a dream! Wait, if this were a dream, I wouldn't have felt his punches connecting. No, not a dream. But he couldn't have just said that! He has Ashley, Liara, so many women to choose from! Why go for someone who's face he can never see? _

Tali gently shifted against Marcus' shoulder, and he let it drop to his side, allowing Tali to backup. Tali was just plain shocked. She had no idea what to do with herself. To think her feelings for the Spectre were being reciprocated. _No...this can't work. It won't work. I'm quarian, he's human. All I could is sit in his lap while he kisses my mask. We can't do what he could do with other humans. I won't let his future happiness be blocked by my selfishness. He needs to forget about me. I'll just give him some space._

"I-I-I need to go. I'll-I'll be in engineering." Tali then gripped the device hard in her fist and shot out the door, heading for the elevator as fast as she could manage.

Marcus was just left standing there, watching the doors close behind the long gone quarian.

_Great, I fucked up. Now you've creeped out your crew._

With that, Marcus turned around and kicked the side of the bed in anger before falling into it, face first.

**{Loading...}**

_June 19, 2183_

_1715 hours._

_'Humanity's Sanctum', Upper Facilty, Cronos Station, Anadius System. _

_Eden Prime War._

_The Illusive Man, First Lieutenant Miranda Lawson._

"Sir, I have the dossier." Came Miranda's voice from behind him.

Jack Harper, or as the alliance dubbed him, 'the Illusive Man', continued stare blankly into the gigantic, pulsing yellow star of Anadius, the station orbitting the giant sun. He took the cigarette from his mouth and puffed it before lowering it back into the bowel where he snuffed out the flame on the end of it.

Reaching out his right hand, he took the datapad from his second-in-command and lowered it to get a better look. The Dossier of Marcus Lee Shepard. The man had interested him quite alot; he was a shining beacon to the galaxy of what humanity was capable of. His battle at Elysium and Torfan proved to be what made Shepard such a tough soldier.

Cerberus was in desperate need of men like him. Men who would do anything to protect humanity. And that was exactly what Cerberus was about; humanity. Cerberus was humanity's right hand; taking out and destroying the enemy's of mankind. They were humanity's vanguard.

"Excellent, Miss Lawson. I want Shepard's ship tagged and tracked. I want to know what he's up to and if possible, recruit him. He will be useful in the fight against the geth. They cannot be allowed to win." Illusive finished by picking up his cup of whiskey and sipping it gently, while Miranda relieved the datapad of his grip and left.

"Yes sir. Would you like me to get ahold of Operative Taylor?" Miranda asked as she stood ready to leave.

"If possible, yes. If not, then allow him to report in when he sees the need. If he doesn't report in within the next 48 hours, then attempt contact. Failing that, send in commandos. Jacob's work is very dangerous and I don't expect him to come out without being spotted. Just be alert, Miss Lawson. Dismissed." With that, Miranda nodded and left the room, door closing behind her.

Without even glancing behind him, Illusive smiled as he let the cup rest back on the cradle to his right, moving to pick up his cigarette again as his right hand activated the forward interface and began scrolling through Shepard's crew dossiers.

_Let's take a look at the people you recruit._

**{Loading...}**

_June 19, 2183_

_1312 hours._

_Engineering, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Attican Beta Cluster, In FTL inbound for Feros._

_Eden Prime War._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Chief Engineer Gregory Adams._

_I can't believe it. He actually...likes me. I didn't think...keelah, you fool, it couldn't never work out so forget it. Besides, he'll forget about you minutes later and then start flirting with Ashley, or even Liara! Its just like what you've got...a foolish crush that can never work. I can never have him and he can't have me...its impossible. _

Tali tried desperately to work, but finding work was impossible in her current state. Her mind was still running over the events of what happened minutes before; how Commander Shepard, the Lion of Elysium, and admitted to having a crush on her. It was impossible to believe, but it had happened. She was now in a state of confusion on whether she should come out with the truth and reveal that she thought the same and attempt a working relationship, or if she should just tell him that they should keep it 'professional.'

Problem was, her body and heart wanted him badly. Her mind wanted him badly, but was focusing on the logic of it being impossible. Her mind was right, and all she faced now was accepting that. But her heart and body weren't easy to defeat.

Luckily, the sound of her beeping omnitool saved her from having to do that. Opening the glowing tool, she saw a message from her father. She opened the message to read it.

_To: Pilgrim Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

_From: Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Huzzi_

_Subject: Re: My pilgrimage._

_Settle down girl and listen. Your pilgrimage isn't some kind of adventure. You have a duty to your people so don't let some human vessel get the better of you. Just watch yourself, aliens can't be trusted. _

_It is unfortunate to hear about the death of Keenah'Butras, but I'm sure you will not need him to complete your duty to the quarian people. Stay strong Tali'Zorah, Clan Zorah is watching you. Weakness will not be tolerated, not by me, or the admiralty._

_Stay safe, Pilgrim._

_Keelah Se'lai._

_From: Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Huzzi_

_To: Pilgrim Tali'Zorah nar Rayya_

Tali's body drooped in disappointment. She had been an idiot. She had thought that her father would be happy for her; she thought he'd support her and urge her on, motivate her to make new friends with the outside galaxy and to complete her pilgrimage by helping Shepard. But then she had forgotten just who her father was.

Rude, arrogant and a complete bosh'tet. He hadn't even bothered to acknowledge her simply calling her 'pilgrim' like she wasn't even family. It was times like these that made Tali miss her mother even more, to simply collapse in Meru's arms as she wept. Now she was alone, far from her people, and onboard a vessel with so many aliens.

_Let that bosh'tet spout. I'm sick of his arrogance. I'll show him. As his daughter and a proud member of Clan Zorah...I'll show him. _Sighing, Tali tried to return to work but found that she had none to start with and approached Adams to find work.

"Hey quarian, you're Tali right?" Tali stopped at the sound of the male voice and turned to see Kaidan approaching her from engineering's left wing door.

"Yes, that's me. Something you need?" The quarian asked.

"Nothing, I just wanted to talk. Better to do it the Mess Hall though." Kaidan stated.

"I can't. My shift's not-" Tali was about to continue, but Adams interrupted her.

"Go on Tali, take a break. Be back in an hour."

"Thank you, Adams," Tali thanked, and then turned back to Kaidan, "Okay, let's go." With that, Tali followed Kaidan out of engineering and onto the elevator, which took them up to the Crew Deck where they stepped out again.

"So how's it feel to be working with a non-quarian crew?" Kaidan finally asked as they moved to sit at the main table.

"Pretty interesting. I'm quite home sick, but I'm still quite shocked over how most of the crew is treating me. Its like I'm not even quarian." Tali stated a-matter-of-factly.

"Its quite sad to watch your people get treated like that. And to think its just because of a few of your people who actually are beggars and thieves that you find yourself in that situation. But don't worry, with Shepard here, racism has no place. Except if your a volus, he hates volus." Kaidan said, chuckling.

Tali laughed as well, "I can't say I'm fond of them either. Volus are the ones that hate my people the most."

"Really? Then I guess its a good thing that you have Shepard to protect eh?" Kaidan stated, smiling.

"Yeah.." Tali then drifted off, thinking of Shepard. She had to shake it off. It was never going to happen, and thinking about it wouldn't help.

"You like him, don't you?" Came Kaidan's voice, and Tali was immediately shaken out of her thoughts.

"What?" Tali asked, shocked and hoping that he didn't mean EXACTLY what she thought he did.

"You like him. I've seen the way the mention of his name affects you, how his presence makes you feel. You have a crush for him?" Kaidan declared, and Tali finally sighed and let her shoulders droop.

"Yes." Tali said simply.

"Why haven't you made a move yet? He likes you, I can tell. He just told me a few minutes ago to confirm it. Although I'm not the man to ask about how to sweettalk women." Kaidan stated.

"I know but its never...wait, he called you? As in, told you about..." Tali drifted off, hoping that Kaidan caught on. To her relief, he did.

"Yeah. Told me everything. Feels like he fucked up and wants to make amends. He wanted to apologize for dropping that on you but he wanted to get it all out, see what you thought of it. I didn't tell him, but it's obvious you feel the same." Kaidan, leaning in as he said the last line.

"Yes, I do. Keelah, only the ancestors know how badly. But, it just couldn't work. I'm a quarian. Leaving my suit would kill me. A single kiss could put me in the hospital. Its just...it can't work, no matter how much I want him. I want him to be happy with someone...he can't do that with me." Tali said, unwillingly adding melancholy in her tone. She felt like crying, but that would just be childish and make her look weak.

"Love's a bitch, isn't it?" Kaidan asked bluntly. Tali nodded slightly.

"I once loved a girl once. Back when I was in BAaT; a girl named Rahna. We were friends, mostly, and it was obvious she wasn't willing to push past the friendzone with me. But you know what?" Kaidan asked.

"W-what?" Tali answered with another question.

"I still loved her. That's the beauty of the emotion; impossibility, logic, both of them have no affect on love unless you want them to. They simply get in the way. And when you conquer them and sweep them aside, your left with your goal; the person you love. So my point is, no matter how much I knew that Rahna would never love me back, I loved her, and that was all that mattered to me."

"But that's different. She wasn't trapped inside a-" Tali began, but was once again interrupted.

"It may be physically different, but when you look at it closely, you realize there is no difference, Tali. Sure you're stuck in a suit, but is that stopping you from loving him?" Kaidan responded.

"I don't love him, I have a stupid girly crush for him..." Tali corrected.

"You know what a crush is? Its just love without a basis. I've seen how you look at him Tali, and you're only deluding yourself if you say you don't love him. Don't let that stupid suit crush your dreams. Have you heard of a movie called Fleet and Flotilla?"

"Fleet and...how is this relevant?" Tali asked rather rudely.

"Just answer the question." Kaidan responded equally.

"I-Yes, I have heard it of it, but haven't seen it." Tali answered.

"So you know it's about a romance between a turian and quarian. Well, the quarian loved the turian very much, and to show him, she did her best to show that to him. Thus, taking off the suit. Tali, I know damn well that you know they're are ways to get out of that suit without automatically dying of heart failure."

Tali opened her mouth to retort that, but no words came. Why? Because he was right. If the quarians couldn't get out of the their own suits, they would have died out long ago. Tali had been so caught up in her depression that she had been ignoring all forms of optimism.

"I-I-I hadn't considered that. I...thank you Kaidan but...why me? Why not Ashley or Liara? Wouldn't they be more logical choices to fall for? I mean, he tells me he's in love with a woman who's face he hasn't even seen yet?"

Tali's heart stopped. Her face. Noone had seen it except Shala and Meru, and that had only been when she was a baby. Her father refused to share any moments with her without their masks, and the only time a grown woman would show her face to anyone would either be when they were spending quiet time with their unionmate, or when...they..._Keelah, showing my face...I haven't done that to anyone. Not my own family, but I'm willing to show it to Shepard. I care that much for him? Am I...beginning the bonding process? No, for that to happen he'd have to reciprocate the feelings I have._

"Kaidan-I know I shouldn't be asking you of all people this but...how do I tell him? How do I tell him how I feel?" Tali asked the alliance sentinel, curious as to his opinion on this. Tali would have to tell Shepard eventually, hell, she didn't even know his first name, but asking Kaidan for some advice would definitely help make it less awkward.

"That bit I can't help you with Tali. That's all up to you. I've helped you overcome your doubts, you just have to let the word out. Best wait until after the Feros mission though. I don't think Shepard will appreciate having to deal with that and thinking about you. Just saying. Anyway, got to get back to it, and I bet you do to. See you around." Kaidan declared, moving to stand up.

Tali stoop up too and held out her hand to the human, "Kaidan...thank you."

Kaidan smiled and took her hand, shaking it, "Don't thank me, thank yourself. I just guided you, your mind did the rest." Without elaborating what he meant, Kaidan left the table and returned to his post near the Captain's Quarters, whistling as he went.

Tali smiled and moved towards the elevator.

_Thank you mum. If you're out there, thank you so much. Now the awkward part; telling him._

From a couple of meters away, a curious asari stood watching the quarian as her petite form disappeared behind the elevator door.

_Goddess, looks like I'll have some competition. _

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_June 19, 2183_

_2114 hours. _

_Main Laboratory, Kowloon-Class Modular Conveyor MSV Fedele, Kepler Verge Cluster, Herschel System._

_Eden Prime War._

_Doctor Saleon Yules 'Doctor Untaav Heart.'_

The salarian named Saleon Yules sighed and leaned back in his seat as he studied the numerous monitors surrounding his lab. Vital signs were deadbeat, heart rate gone and neural stability disintegrating fast. Another test subject dead to his experiments, this time a human, but he had successfully cloned his lungs, liver, kidneys and genitals; all available now to sell to his client.

_Who's next._

Hitting the button for the conveyor line, he found the next subject was a krogan. Saleon smiled at this prospect, as krogan organs were very valuable, and was about to start his new work only to have his communicator interrupt him.

"Saleon sir, we've got a new shipment ready to come aboard. I think you'll like this one." Came his brother's voice, Jaroth. Saleon smiled at Jaroth's last bit of sentence, as when his brother said he was going to like something, he meant it.

"What do you have, brother?" Saleon asked through the communicator.

"Asari, more humans, more krogan, more salarians and of course...I managed to capture two quarians on pilgrimage..." Jaroth ended with a devious smile, "One male, one female. Perfect couple, don't you think?"

"Yes, having their organs cut out should be very romantic," Saleon said dryly, "Just get them over here Jaroth, I don't have time to waste while C-Sec play with their dicks. Get the bodies over to storage. Prepare them for gasing. I think I'll operate on these ones without an anesthetic. I've always wanted to hear a quarian scream. Now I get the chance."

"Just remember the deal, brother. Eclipse won't accept trickery. Just get me the credits you promised." Jaroth responded, no venom in his voice.

"Quit worrying Jaroth, you will get your well-earned creds in due time. Just have your goons do their job. And if you could collect more quarians, I'd be more than grateful."

"Quarians are hard to come by, they mostly keep to themselves. But I'll see what I can do. Maybe if I could get a few to uh, give me private access to the Migrant Fleet...What would you think of some admiral's organs?" Jaroth stated with a smirk creasing his lips.

"Sounds delicious. Do what you can, Saleon out." With that, Saleon deactivated his comm and was about to return to work when another voice entered his comm, "Sir, incoming transmission, unknown designation."

"Tell them they can wait. I'm in the middle of an experiment."

This time, a more intimidating voice answered, "Your experiment won't last very long if one of my cruisers decides they want to use the Fedele as target practise, Doctor." Saleon noticed the voice was on ship-wide comms and tuned his communicator to listen in.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"Who we are is not important, what we stand for is another matter. You can call me Operative Reinburg. I've noticed you're flash cloning organs doctor, and we were wondering if you'd like a different way of earning creds. Something that involves a little...spying?" Reinburg stated.

"Spying? Look I'm not..."

"You either take the job or you can introduce yourself to the Fedele's debris field. I have two stealth corvettes trailing your brother's freighter and three more surrounding the Fedele. Now, you either spy for us, or you can die a slow death in space. Take your pick, salarian, make a wise one. You're a salarian afterall." Reinburg finished with what sounded like smugness in his voice.

"I-okay, who do you want me to spy on?" Saleon asked.

"Its an Alliance vessel. Ever heard of the SSV Normandy?"

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_June 17, 2183_

_1726 hours._

_Main Offices, ExoGeni Headquarters, Prothean Skyline, Feros. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros._

_ExoGeni Executive Elizabeth Jari Baynham, ExoGeni Minor Thomas Gregson._

Scared. Lizbeth was scared. She had never been so frightened her entire life. Mercenaries attacking were one thing, but an army of geth spearheaded by a geth frigate bombardment was a whole different thing. Geth soldiers were swarming the facility, with the frigate having attached itself to the structure's upper half.

Now she was hiding in the main offices with her colleague, Tommy, the place long abandoned after the evacuation alert. She didn't know how many people made it out in time, but due to the enemy that was attacking, it was highly likely that noone made it out. Why was she here? She had to warn the colonial authority and warn them about the geth assault. That...and Species 37.

"We should just run, Miss Baynham! We should just run and hide!" Tom pleaded with her, but his objections full on deaf ears. Tommy had always been a nervous lad; a kid with problems, mostly ADHD, but was brilliant, yet shy. He was her assistant and a huge pacifist, despising violence in every way shape or form. He even went as far as to reject defending himself; a geth had him cornered and an assault rifle nearby could have saved him. Instead, a security officer sacrificed herself to have him.

And now they were here. In the biggest fight of their lives. She turned to face Tom slowly; any sudden movements would alert the geth to their presence and the machines would surely kill them. As far as she knew, the synthetics had taken full control of the building and were setting up fortifications. She whispered.

"Run? Hide? Are you crazy! These are machines, they'll find us and kill us just like every other poor bastard in this place! Our best chance is to warn the colonial authority and hope to god they send reinforcements or a fleet! We need to warn them!"

Tom got the point and kept his mouth closed, shutting down any particular retorts he originally had cooked up. Turning to face up ahead again, they moved forward slowly; their boots marking the ground with every step as they moved forward. It wasn't long before Lizbeth had reached her desk and was typing into her terminal. So far, no mechanical whirring came to investigate.

"Tom, keep a look out. This won't take a minute." Tom did as told, scanning the room with his eyes while also seemingly touching every thing he could find and muttering to himself. Liz simply ignored him and continued typing into her terminal until the voice message came up.

"Hello? This is employee Elizabeth J. Baynham of the ExoGeni Corporation, does anybody read?" Liz waited for a few seconds. She was well rewarded.

"We hear you, Miss Baynham, this is the SACA, what's your-" Liz gasped suddenly when the terminal shut down and every major power source in the building went offline. Sparks showered from overhead power cables as power was shifted to another power source.

"Tom, we have to go, now-" Liz didn't get to finish as more geth flooded into the room. Taking her chances, she grabbed Tom's arm and entered a full sprint across the room, ignoring the terminal she dropped on the ground. The geth opened fire, but luckily they were outside the office before they could hit them. But she didn't stop running.

Lizbeth continued to run and run and run until she finally found a flight of stairs. She didn't stop running until she was on the bottom level where the geth surely wouldn't find them; the parking lot and drive through. The place was a mess; destroyed aircars were left scattered across the area, fires raging to and from the left and right side, with dead employees lying all over the place.

Bits of steel road poked up from the ground, while fires raged under their dead hulk. The numerous doors in the area were either active, unactive or malfunctioning as they tried to shut, but were jammed. Luckily, there was a large destroyed airtruck briming with flames, so she took Tom and hid behind it, finding a dead security guard and his standard issue judgment pistol. Picking it up, she stayed infront of Tom to protect him.

The next thing to happen scared the crap out of her; a low, guttural growl. One that was primal, recognizable and scared the shit out of her. She didn't even dare to turn around as she felt the beast's foul breath on the back of her neck, hearing the repulsive sound of saliva dripping from razor sharp fangs. It barked.

Behind her, ready to pounce, was a Varren.

The beasts were like the galactic parody of dogs back on Earth. But only a fool, or a krogan, would utilize a varren as a pet. The animals were a dark grey color with no fur, being more reptillian, while they had a pair of large beady eyes, razor sharp canine teeth and a small tail. They were four legged and fast, not to mention utterly disgusting but most of all; scary.

She heard the varren pounce and she closed her eyes. But instead of hearing her own screams of agony as the beast sliced its teeth into her, she heard Tom's. Turning around, she watched as the Varren's teeth sunk deeply into Tom's body, the animal tossing him about like a rag doll. Tom screamed and yelled in pure pain and agony, his eyes begging Liz to save him. The varren simply dragged him away into a room nearby, where she heard more hungry growls.

The varren were hungry, and Tom was their lunch.

So Liz did the most cowardly thing possible; she got up and RAN. She didn't even turn around, she just continued running and running, not breaking her sprint to look back. Behind her she heard the sound of the varren eating Tom alive; his screams of pain filling her head as she held back tears. She could have at least shot and killed Tom to spare him the pain of being eaten alive; but she didn't even do that.

It wasn't long before she finally escaped the screams and found herself in another tunnel, hiding behind a destroyed car. Leaning back into the side of the car, she slid onto the ground and sighed a heavy sigh as she dropped the pistol onto the ground.

Then she started crying.

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_June 19, 2183_

_2459 hours. _

_Sleeper Chambers, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Attican Beta Cluster, In FTL inbound for Feros._

_Eden Prime War._

_Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

"You see this, little wing?" Liara turned to the source of the voice and looked up to see it was her mother, Benezia. Liara turned to acknowledge her mother's words, and looked up at the giant structure called the Temple of Athame. She was back in her home city, Armali, the capital of Thessia, the asari homeworld. The temple followed asari design; nice, sleek and beautiful, covered in a purple/gold outline.

"Yes mum." Liara responded, her voice that of when she was just a toddler; no more than 54 years old.

"This is the Temple of Athame. This is where all asari worship the goddess Athame, our savior, our protector. She gave us life, distinction and a reason to live. She breathed it all into us. It is part of our glorious existence. That is why we embrace her eternity." Benezia explained, letting her child's eyes roam over the large structure the asari called their place of worship.

Liara smiled at the sound of her mother's kind voice, full of a sweetness that the young asari had taken for granted. Liara, mentally, lost that smile. The Benezia she knew now was nothing like the old Benezia; if what Shepard said was true, and Benezia really was working for Saren, then she had changed majorly, and definitely not for the better.

She watched as Benezia's smile disappeared from her face and her hand suddenly lashed out; wrapping itself around her neck. Liara struggled as she watched Benezia's face crease into one of pure loathing and hatred. Gone was the sweet and kind Benezia, here was a monster and furious matriarch. She watched as Benezia lifted her bioticly powered fist and brought it down on Liara's face. She could only scream.

Liara's eyes suddenly shot open, looking around through the glass of the sleeper pod. She sighed in relief. It had just been a dream, of course it was. Liara was a hundred and six years old and not dead. But the look on Benezia's face had really scared her. It made her afraid.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, she hit the panel for the sleeper pod and it lifted open, allowing Liara to step out of the cramped pod and onto the silent deck of the Crew Deck. It was quiet, peaceful and most of all; empty. It was the perfect place for the asari to relax and be alone with her thoughts. Hitting the panel again, she watched the door slide closed and began moving down towards the mess hall.

She passed Garrus, Kaidan, Ashley, Pressly, Chakwas and the other's numerous sleeper pods, ignoring them and allowing them to sleep. But then she came across one particular pod, one that made her jealous; Tali's. Why did this make her jealous? It made her jealous because Tali, like herself, was out for Shepard's attention. Liara had a reason; he had saved her and shown kindness, not to mention he was incredibly sexy by asari standards. What woman wouldn't be attracted?

She couldn't to eye the slumbering form of the quarian as she slept, her breaths so low and light that not even the vocalizer picked it up, remaining turned off and dark. The only sound coming from the pod was a low, strange humming sound. A protective system in Liara clicked; a protective instinct that told her to kill Tali as she slept; slit her throat, riddle the pod with holes, pop her suit seals...

_Goddess, how can you think those things! She's just a young girl and you want to kill her just so you can have Shepard all to yourself? Think of what Benezia would say! _With that thought, Liara simply turned away and walked down the deck and fully into the mess hall. _Yeah, in her current state, she'd tell me to do it. I'm nothing like her. I just need to get Shepard to notice me before Tali tries something._

Liara turned to sit down and noticed the one person sitting there that she didn't expect at all; Shepard. He was quietly working on some datapads, obviously enthralled in his work. A small smile creased the asari's lips. _Now's my chance. _Putting on her best act, she moved towards and sat down next to Shepard. He didn't notice for a second before turning to the asari and smiling.

"Hey Liara, couldn't sleep?" Marcus asked the asari, setting down the pad on the table.

"I could ask you the same thing." Liara counted, smiling back.

"I'm a Commander. Lot of work to do; I have to file out requests for food rations, medical supplies, stocking of munitions, make sure engineering has got all the stuff they need, mission funding, briefings to high command, mission briefings themselves, you guys...its hectic being the commanding officer of the galaxy's most advanced warship. It certainly isn't a walk in the park." Marcus explained.

"I can imagine." Liara shared.

Sighing, the human spectre turned back to her, "So, why are you up so early? Its very early in the morning."

"Really? What time is it?" The asari asked, not bothering to check the time when she woke up.

"More like 'what date is it.' Its June 20, 2183, one o'clock in the morning. We're almost at Feros, ETA's a estimate of six hours until we're in full, circular orbit over the planet. Apart from me, Joker and Adams, noone should be awake until seven. So I guess you're the early bird." Marcus said, laughing, "Honestly, I expected Tali to be up first. She's an eager one. Adams likes her alot for how she takes her job so seriously."

"Early bird?" Liara asked, trying so desperately not to mention Tali.

"Human idiom. Birds are an animal back on Earth, like to wake up really early. In other words, an early bird. I really do need to explain human idioms more. Do asari use idioms?" Marcus asked, using the oppurtunity to learn more about the asari.

"We don't see a need for them. Figurative language among my people isn't common. We were prefer to speak logically and get straight to the point instead of using cryptic and metaphoric language. More effective from our point of view." Liara explained.

"That's understandable. I guess it means you spend less time figuring out what the hell the idiom means and more into the business you're conducting."

"Exactly." Liara responded.

The two continued to talk for a little bit before joined by Tali, who finally got up.

"Good morning, Tali. How did you sleep?" Marcus asked the quarian as she came to sit opposite the pair, the quarian giving Liara a sideways stare before turning to answer the commander's question.

"Great, thanks to you. That device you gave me really helped. I don't think I got the chance to thank you." Tali declared in her thanking tone.

"Don't mention it. You looked like you needed it anyway. Besides it was...uh...least I could do for someone I...um...deserves it. For someone who deserves it." Liara looked at Shepard wide-eyed. The asari's first impression of the soldier had been that he was a no-bullshit fighting type, but he had shown to be very sociable and was now stuttering.

"Uh...yeah...thank you. Listen, about..." Tali then remembered Liara was present, "Forget it. Talk about it later. It's kind of private. I'll...I'll just leave you two...to talk. I-I'll be in engineering." Tali then got out of her seat and moved towards the elevator, but Shepard stopped her, if only for a second.

"Tali, after the mission on Feros, I need to talk to you about...you know...yesterday." Tali and Shepard exchanged looks for a couple of seconds before Tali shook her head out of her trance and nodded, double timing it to the elevator. When the quarian was gone, Shepard turned back to return to his work. He noticed Liara had gotten closer.

"You know what...I need to...um...do some work in my cabin...I...I'll be there if you need me." Without a second glance, Shepard picked up his datapads and rushed into his cabin, the door sliding shut behind him.

Liara looked at the door wide-eyed before turning back to the table and felt her eyes droop. It wasn't long before sleep consumed her again, her head faceplanting into the table.

**"So things were getting heated between the two. But I guess we won't see the resolution 'till the end of the Feros mission."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"I'm sure you'll be so excited to learn the intricate workings of how they had intercourse. But unfortunately for you, I didn't watch the whole fucking thing so I guess I can't tell you. Besides, who said you had to wait until after Feros?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Why don't you tell us now?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Oh, but that would be spoilers..."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

_**Alert!**_

_**Mass Effect 3 How It Could Have Happened is being put on temporary hold and will be for a WHILE. I'm currently trying to overcome writer's block with both of these fanfics, but this one seems easier to overcome while HICH is taking longer than usual. I'm terribly sorry but it has to be done. Its either that, this or both, and I'd much rather this one continue. Besides, you think reading a script format is tedious? I have to WRITE it. That's a thousand times worse.**_

_**Anyway, I also have something to share. WHERE ARE YOU GUYS? You guys have dropped off the grid, and only my loyal and faithful 'TW9494' is actually keeping up with me. Noone else is reviewing. Where are you WhiteDawn? Shipwreck? Where are all of you? And Reaver, well, I can understand why he's not reviewing but the rest of you! If you're reading, please review! And please try not to just say 'nice chapter' or 'this chapter was goodness.' Let's be honest, that's as motivating as watching water droplets drop from a ceiling.**_

_**When you're reviewing, try the Reaver approach. Not nessacarily any comedy or LENGTHLY text, but at least something that helps me fix up errors. That is what reviews were meant for anyway.**_

_**Either way, I'd say like, comment and subscribe, but this isn't youtube, so I'll settle with 'Favourite, Follow and Review.'**_

_**'Definitive. Can you define that?'**_

_**WHOA! **_

_**Before I forget, I'm still looking for people to make a front cover image for Enigma.**_

_**Can't remember what I wanted it to look like, very well...**_

_**I want a image of Marcus Shepard (he has to have a beard similiar to the one Joker has in ME3), standing in front, glowing with biotics while holding his assault rifle in his left hand, his right hand curled in a fist, while Tali and Garrus stand to his sides. In the back ground, I want the faint image of Saren. How you do those, is up to you. You can choose the pose Tali or Garrus is in (remember, Tali has to be in her ME1 suit, not the ME2 and 3 one) and how you present Saren. Its all up to you. I don't care what armor Shepard is wearing either. It would also be nice if the letter 'E' for 'Enigma' could be hidden in there somewhere as well. :)**_

_**Just submit a link to me via email. My email is:**_

_**sterilequarian **_

_**I look forward to seeing what you come up with.**_

_**If you can link up with a DeviantArt artist or anyone else you know who would be willing to do so, that would be an added bonus.**_

_**Thanks!**_


	13. Chapter 11 Skyfall Pt1

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

**SKYFALL PART ONE**

_June 20, 2183_

_0707 hours._

_Debriefing Room, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Attican Beta Cluster, In Orbit over Feros. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus sighed as he awaited everyone to arrive. As usual, Ashley and Kaidan were there first, with Liara surprisingly not far behind, entering just a minute after the two marines. Not long after, the rest of the team had arrived, and they found themselves all set up in the briefing room. Sighing, Marcus stood up and moved to the middle of the room.

"As you already know, we're in orbit over Feros. I'll give you the brief details. Its a human colony, the whole planet is riddled with prothean ruins and has been labelled the most artifact rich planet available in the galaxy. It has a surface temperture of 10 degrees centigrade. It is 1.879 of the earth mass. It has two moons and has a radius of 8,366 kilometers. The capital is the main ruins, dubbed the 'Feros Skyline' and is spearheaded by the Zhu's Hope Settlement. It has a small population of three hundred, most of them working in the ExoGeni HQ building or living in Zhu's Hope."

"Where do the geth come into this?" Wrex asked, obviously eager to destroy more of the emotionless machines.

"The geth had a battlegroup here recently, that much is obvious. There are noticable signs of battle, including a crashed alliance corvette on the skyline. The geth flagship must have been here recently as well, as the noticable scorch marks from Eden Prime are visible near the colony. It is obvious they have since left though, but Pressly managed to detect a geth frigate at the ExoGeni building. From he can tell, they've been here for quite awhile. Possibly a week, so possibility of survivors are slim. We expect heavy geth activity, so as an advent I'm taking everyone with me."

"I thought the whole point of the mission was to rescue and lift the siege on the colony. If there's noone alive, what's the point?" Wrex asked again, impatiently.

"Did I say everyone was dead and the colony was nothing a Tunguska crater? No. What I did say, was that there was a possibility that everyone is dead. I'm not going to fly off and leave any possible survivors behind to eventually be found and slaughtered. We'll land at Zhu's Hope, get a tactical evaluation of the landscape and then assume positions as per analysis. We'll scope the area out for survivors, evac them if any and then leave."

Marcus looked around the room as if daring anyone to challenge his command. Seeing no objections or rising questions, he continued.

"Remember, this is a rescue op, not a 'let's shoot anything that moves' op. Watch your fire and make sure all civilians are accounted for. If it has a glowing head, then by all means, riddle it with bullets. But if it has two eyes and two legs, then make sure you don't kill it and you evacuate it before someone CAN kill it. Am I understood?"

Everyone in the room nodded, their eyes still fixed on their commanding officer.

"So are we ready to kick geth ass or what?" Marcus asked with a smirk on his face.

"Hell yeah!" Everyone said simultaneously.

Marcus' grin grew even bigger, turning to the intercom, "Joker, bring us into dock with Zhu's Hope and open the portside airlock." Without further words, he motioned for everyone to follow him out of the room and towards the airlock. He stopped at Pressly on his way out.

"Pressly, I'm leaving you in command. Make sure Joker doesn't run off." Marcus informed the navigator.

"I'll make sure of it." Pressly said, seriously and smiling at the same time. Marcus simply patted the man on the arm before following the rest of his team towards the airlock, bringing up his helmet to lock around his head.

_June 20, 2183_

_0713 hours. _

_Skyline Dock, Northern Skyline, Zhu's Hope, Feros. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus patiently waited infront of the exterior airlock hatch as he waited for the door to open. Glancing around him, he found Wrex to his left, Solokov out and held solidly in his grip while Liara looked oddly out of place in her light human armor and single Spectre pistol behind him. Kaidan and Ashley stood side by side at his rear while Garrus stood on his right with Tali just behind him. A turian, a quarian, two humans, an asari and a krogan. This is the strangest team he has ever lead, hands down.

Finally the door shot open, and the smell that met him was so foul and vulgar that he swore that without his military training, he would have fainted already. Luckily, his experience on Elysium, Torfan and...yeah, those experiences had him smelling the horrible smell of rotting corpses, so he was pretty used to it. This was however...a unusual smell. It was tangy and smelt of...a plant? If so, this plant had to be pretty big for the smell was overwhelming.

Seemingly reading his mind, he saw Tali switch her olfactory filters on while Ashley and Kaidan put on there helmets, followed by Liara, all three switching on their olfactory filters just like Tali. Garrus didn't seem to mind the smell and Wrex simply seemed blissfully ignorant of its presence, awaiting for Marcus to move on. After also switching his olfactory filters on, Marcus stepped into the dock.

Either this place was old, or had recently been attacked. The room wasn't huge, being large enough to only just fit the Normandy. Large, steel railings ran the docking chambers length with the ground taking up the color a rotten brown, with bits of dust collecting all over. Rotten cabling lay everywhere, while more dust trailed from the ceiling. Signs of battle were evident, with spent bullets lay all over the ground, along with the rounds of geth weapons. Numerous bodies lay all over, geth and human. His team continued to examine the carnage that had taken place until a voice shook them out of their examination.

"Hey! Are you the Alliance soldiers that just arrived?" Came the male voice from his right.

Marcus turned to invesitgate the voice that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and found a short man running towards them, his hand in the air. His skin was the coffee brown of Anderson's, but his hair was like something that a black guy might have in a 1950's voice, cropped up in a bowl-like shape. He wore a simple brown and white shirt and was clearly a colonist, a bandolier like item strapped across his chest. The man was human and very frightened.

"Yes, I'm Lieutenant Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy, recently established Council Spectre. Your colony went off the grid and we were sent to investigate. We believe this colony is the victim of a geth invasion?" Marcus informed the man.

"Invasion, no. Attack, yes. They...they just started bombarding us. My name is David Al Talaqani, I'm part of Fai Dan's senior staff. I was told you would be arriving."

"Fai Dan?" It was Garrus who asked this time.

"He's our leader. He'll be expecting you." The man named Talaqani explained.

"Wait, how long ago did this attack take place?" Marcus asked.

"It happened about-" Talaqani began, but began screaming in pain, holding his head as he collapsed on the ground. Tali rushed to the man's aid, helping him off the ground. After making sure he was okay, Tali returned to the group, still watching the man, confused by his odd actions.

"I'm sorry, I get these headaches quite alot. You need to speak to Fai Dan about that." Talaqani explained, recovering from his sudden bout of agony.

"Why can't you tell us?" Marcus asked, getting suspicious.

"I'm not at liberty to say. Like I said, speak to Fai Dan if you want to know more." Talaqani stated, his voice making it known that that was his final word on the topic. Marcus sighed and nodded, motioning for his team to follow. Tali seemed to be keeping her distance from him, and he kicked himself mentally. _Can't stand being in your presence either! That's how badly you creeped her out!_

He shook those thoughts from his head as he and his team continued to follow Talaqani into the Zhu's Hope settlement. So far he had only seen evidence of battle; bits of broken stone, steel and hanging cabling, all a testament to the war that had brought itself upon the unprepared colonists. Feros would probably never be the same again.

It wasn't long before they found themselves in the actual encampment, the harsh sun of Theseus greeting their arrival, burning brightly in the daytime sky. The settlement wasn't terribly organized, with a mish mash of portable bunkers scattered all over the settlement. There was a long pipe that ran the length of the colony, while a single crane connected to the biggest bunker lay in the settlement's center. They were welcomed by two barricades, both holding two human colonists with assault rifles, one a female and another a male.

Walking past the barricades, he saw another female human colonist working on the pipe, her hair tied in a ponytail while she cursed at the terminal connected to the pipe. A single salarian lay at back, fiddling with what looked like a security issue judgment model pistol, two other humans surrounding him. Talaqani lead them through the doorway and through the main bunker, a single human male tapping angrily at the datapad, exchanging a glance at the odd team of alien mishaps.

It wasn't long before they finally reached Fai Dan, who appeared to be talking to one of the female security guards, likely ExoGeni due to her light armor and holstered avenger assault rifle. Talaqani informed Fai Dan of their presence, and the human turned to greet them. He looked to be in his late forties, his face worthy of his age. His hair was black with brownish edges and cut so short that he was almost bald. He wore a uniform similiar to Talaqani's, just with a hint of crimson.

His compatriot was a different story, her light armor being a dark green with a mixture of brown, being of a simple sleek and smooth design. Her hair wasn't long but cropped and curly, the color of a eagle's feathers. Her face was tanned with the look of someone in their mid twenties. Looking down at her identification tag he read 'Corporal Arcelia Silva Martinez'.

"Commander Shepard, we're so glad you're here. We didn't know how much longer we could hold out against the geth at the rate we were going. Those machines are relentless," Fai Dan explained, holding up his hand which Marcus took and shook gladly, "I'm Fai Dan, ex-corporate overseer for ExoGeni. I used to loan them money for projects that aided the colony and I'm now the leading authority here. That makes me their leader."

"You're alittle late, aren't you?" The woman named Arcelia asked, her voice laced with a mixture of anger and depression.

"Arcelia! These people are here to help and you complain?" Fai asked the woman.

"These people are Alliance. The Alliance has never helped us in the past and I don't see why we should trust them now." Arcelia shot back, her voice completely full of anger now. Fai shook his head and turned back to Marcus. The spectre could here his comm crackle and Ashley's voice came through his headset.

"If I wanted to be greeted like this, I'd be at MacDonalds." Marcus chuckled loud enough for only his fellow squad to hear, but it seemed only Ashley, Kaidan and Marcus got the joke, with the aliens of the group exchanging confused looks while Wrex simply shrugged his shoulders. Arcelia looked at the group with a worried expression.

"And what kind of alliance unit hires krogan, quarians, turians and asari?" She asked.

"The kind that works like me. We're here to help you take care of this geth problem. You can either let us do our job and assist in everyway possible or we can leave right now. But I won't be pushed around by some ExoGeni grunt who thinks she knows what she's doing." Marcus explained forcefully.

"Oh please, your fancy actions at Elysium aren't going to earn you any pat on the backs here. Just get your job done quickly and leave even faster so we can return to being a normal colony free of the bueracracy of the Alliance." Arcelia retorted, her voice full of venom and hate. It was clear she was a strong hater of the Alliance, but Marcus didn't care.

"You must excuse Arcelia. She's never been a big fan of the Alliance." Fai explained.

"As I can see. I need a situation report. How long ago has it been since the attack began?" Marcus asked.

"Exactly three days. They turned up with this turian spectre and asked for access to-" Fai seemed to stop for a second before continuing, "-the ExoGeni Headquarters. Something must have gone wrong, as the next thing we know the geth are trying to kill us and we're in the fight of our lives. We lose contact with ExoGeni HQ and we're cut off from the wastelanders outside."

"Wastelanders?" Marcus asked.

"Hmmm? Oh, they're colonists who go out to do little errands for ExoGeni, mostly just search and recovery. The last batch haven't returned since the attack began. Ethan Jeong was leading them, he's a hardcore ExoGeni executive and is extremely strict when it comes to company policy. The guy's a bit of a prick if you ask me." Fai Dan finished.

"Well, we need-"

"Incoming! Look out!" Talaqani suddenly yelled, and shoved Fai Dan out of the way just in time for multiple, bright purple shots to riddle his body, his ribcage being ripped open and reminding him of Jenkins' death all over again. Talaqani's blood tattered body fell to the ground face first, dead.

Without even hesitating, Marcus extended his sniper rifle and motioned for Wrex to get Fai Dan into cover. Wrex did as told, the krogan grabbing Fai Dan and pulling him into the cover he had been conveniently shoved into by the now deceased Talaqani. Arcelia was already in cover, assault rifle out in her grip, making irritated, dog-like growls at her predicament. Tali was next to Wrex while Garrus was perched up nearby with Liara and Ashley. Kaidan sat next to him, his tech armor glowing.

"Shit! Did you see it? Did you fucking see it!" Marcus shot at Arcelia.

"I have no fucking clue! I was too busy trying not to get my head taken off by those synthetic tinfucks to care about where they are!" Arcelia shot back, frustration and trepidation flooding her body.

"I see 'em, Shepard. 12:00, northward angle, approximately ten meters. I count ten enemy foot mobiles, advancing on your position." Garrus informed the spectre.

"Copy that, I need classification Garrus." Marcus ordered the turian.

"Solid copy, you have four troopers, a single shock trooper, three rocket troopers and two destroyers. The latter is leading the group while the rocket troopers are taking up the rear. I recommend shotguns while me, Liara and Ashley provide suppressing fire. They look unaware that we're even alive."

"Roger, you take the destroyer on the left, I'll take the right. On my mark. MARK!" Marcus ordered, snapping out of his cover and lowering his punisher sniper rifle so it hovered over the glowing optics of one of the geth destroyers. Without missing a beat, Marcus squeezed the trigger and let the gun butt kick against his shoulder as a shot pounded out of the barrel and slammed into the geth destroyer's unarmored optics, causing an explosion of bright white liquid. The second destroyer quickly followed suit, falling victim to Garrus' Reaper sniper rifle.

Marcus had noticed that the rocket troopers were hiding behind the single shock trooper and decided he needed to rid of him. Turning to Tali he made a hand motion for her to unleash an overload on the platform. She acknowledged him by raising her omnitool and unleashing a fluster of electricity from the device. It impacted the shock trooper with huge force, causing the geth unit to stumble backwards as electricity enveloped its bulk. Without further hesitation, Marcus summoned his biotics and lifted the platform throwing it backwards into its rocket counterpart.

The rocket unit fell as its fellow platform collapsed ontop of it and Marcus, as the situation unfolded, dug into his pockets and picked out a tech grenade, priming the detonator as he threw it across the space and right into the middle of the shock trooper and rocket trooper. None of them even got to level their weapons as the grenade detonated, a large first of flame enveloping both platforms and detonating the rocket launcher's magazine, causing multiple, larger explosions that left nothing of the rocket or shock trooper.

The explosion was enough to damage the other rocket trooper, but not destroy it, and the geth learned quickly as the assumed cover. To punctuate their adaptability, one geth trooper got up and opened fire on Marcus, its shots bouncing off his shield. He got to cover just as the last shot hit, his shields crackling and dying. He cursed as he waited for his shields to recharge, and looked around at his team.

"Vakarian, Zorah, Alenko, Williams and I will lay down suppression fire. T'Soni! Show these assholes what we're capable of! Throw a singularity up their artificial asses! Wrex, I want you to pick them off as Liara's singularity lifts them up. Wait for my signal." Marcus said, looking around the edge of his cover. It seemed two of the troopers had gotten bold and began slowly creeping up towards them. Perfect.

He raised and arm and closed his fist; the hand signal they needed. Within seconds he could hear the staccato, pumping beat of Garrus', Kaidan's and Ashley's assault rifles firing in sync, while Tali's shotgun blasts could just be heard over the noise. Marcus' HMSWG soon joined the fray, the spectre shotgun giving the geth hell. Of course, none of these shots mattered, as the geth simply went into cover, but that was what Liara was for.

"Liara, do it!" Marcus ordered, and Liara, with a moment's hesitation, leapt up and her body pulsed bright blue as her biotics unleashed a giant ball of dark energy towards the hiding machines. It hit dead center, causing the geth troopers to lift helplessly in the air, Wrex's solokov shotgun easily picking them off. A rocket trooper had other ideas and was aiming at Marcus.

"Shepard! Look out-" Tali began to scream, but it was too late. Or at least he thought it had been until Arcelia jumped up and fired a burst into the platform's launcher, causing it to explode and rip the trooper apart. The rest of the magazine followed suit, and unfortunately for the geth, the last few units had been in range, and didn't last very long.

"Stand down, hostiles neatralized. Nice work people." Marcus complimented, sliding his shotgun back onto the magnetic clamp on his back waist, moving towards Fai Dan as he did. Dusting himself off, the man smiled at Marcus.

"Thanks a million Commander. Those bastards have been hitting us every hour. Every hour they send up a squad or fireteam sized unit to weigh on our defenses, keep us on our toes. They've been doing that constantly for the past three days. Like clockwork. We can't keep fighting them off like this. I've already lost four colonists and Arcelia's lost two of her friends against these attacks, and they just get worst. That was the toughest we've fought so far. Won't be long before that frigate comes to finish the job."

"Your colonists won't be able to fend off any more attacks. We need to find that frigate and destroy it, but we can't leave you without guard. They could sneak around us and use our absence as a weapon." Marcus explained. It finally dawned on him what he needed to do. He wouldn't like it, but he had to do it.

"Two of my team will stay and protect your people, defend the colony," before anyone could object, he turned to his team, "Okay. Garrus and Kaidan, you're my men staying here. I need you to hold this position no matter what the cost. Don't let any of those bastards through. They target civilians, you get rough. I mean physically just as much as conventionally. Am I understood?"

"They're as good as safe." Garrus declared, checking his reaper sniper rifle.

"You can count on us to get the job done, sir." Kaidan followed, snapping a crisp salute which Marcus gladly returned before turning back to Fai Dan.

"We need to know where that geth frigate is parked. If we can destroy it, it should put a significant dent in the geth's fighting capability." Marcus informed the colonist, his gesture changing as he crossed his arms.

"Of course, just take the skyline down towards the ExoGeni Headquarters building. Last time we checked, the frigate was literally attached to the building. Like a spider just...bigger. And with guns. My best guess is the geth are using ExoGeni HQ as some sort of base of operations. Taking it back should hinder their capability to counterattack. Just be careful, Varren are all over the place."

"I'll keep that in mind," Marcus was turning to move away when he remembered Talaqani's actions before, "Before I leave, I'd like to ask something. Talaqani was acting very strangely before, and I noticed you were going to say something then you stopped. Is there something I should know?" Marcus asked. Arcelia was already down his throat before he finished, her stance shifting to one of defiance.

"These people aren't trained soldiers! They are scared family people who had just come here to work with ExoGeni! They weren't prepared for a full-scale assault from a race that hasn't left its home cluster for over three hundred years! Noone was!"

"As much as Arcelia's aggression is not very appriopate, she is correct. These people are nothing short of shellshocked and were never prepared for living through full-scale war. You'll have to excuse us if we're a bit on...edge." Fai Dan explained.

"I understand, I didn't mean to offend. I'll be moving now. Do you have a vehicle of any sort that can help us traverse the skyline? Its a pretty long road and I'm expecting geth armatures to be waiting for us." Before Fai Dan could answer, Joker's voice cracked over the comm.

"That hurts, Shepard. It really does. I wish you'd have a little more faith in me. Before you ask what the nutter is going on about, I made sure to deploy the Mako just outside the colony before we docked. Colonists already had us checked in, and I already had Fai Dan giving me the a-okay. You can thank me later if you so wish. If not, dial 1. Now if you don't mind, lunch break. If I miss it then you'll be the one regretting it later. Never keep me from lunch break." With that, Joker's voice disappeared off the comm and it was all he could do to stop himself from cracking up.

"Well, in that case we'll just get moving. That frigate will be removed soon, Fai Dan. I promise you that."

"We can only hope for the best Commander. Thank you for your assistance." Without further words exchanged, Fai Dan walked off with Arcelia, the woman exchanging a glare with the spectre before leaving.

"I have the feeling she doesn't like me." Marcus stated.

"Oh, and did god inform you of this daunting revelation?" Garrus asked sarcastically, drawing a chuckle from the spectre.

"Okay smartass, just keep your head below cover so I don't have to come back with a mop. I'm no house cleaner." Marcus said dryly.

"I don't know Shepard. I think blowing a house completely off the map can be classified as house cleaning. Its just noiser and packs more bang. Oh, and I hope you say hi to the geth for me. I just want the geth to die happily as Garrus Vakarian sends them straight to the geth afterlife." Garrus declared, heaving his turian chest like a triumphant hero.

"The geth don't have an afterlife. They're machines." Tali retorted dryly.

"And for the rest of my life I'll remember that it was a quarian who didn't learn the art of 'figuarative speech.'" Garrus poked at her, earning a snicker from the quarian.

"Come on you two, we've got geth to kill." Marcus declared, motioning for the team coming with him to follow. Tali leaned in close and whispered in his ear, "I think there's more going on with the colonists then simple shock."

Marcus nodded in agreement, glad that someone else agreed with his suspicion. The explanation given by Fai Dan had seemed a little off, and by the sound of his wavering voice, he could tell the colonist's leader was lying about some of it. But he held his tongue, not wanting to make accusations until he had proof. For all he knew, their paranoia could be all for nothing.

They slowly moved down the battered stairway, moving down towards the elevator that would take them down to the skyline.

And to the geth frigate.

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_0730 hours. _

_Northern Uplink, ExoGeni Special Access, Prothean Skyline, Feros. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

"Geth Dropship!" Tali shouted over the thrum of the Mako.

Marcus cursed as he watched the sleek form of the large geth vehicle glide through the air to hover over the skyline they were crossing. The bridge like prothean skyline was a absolute mess; the middle was bent forward due to the collision of a alliance corvette, and there had originally been no geth on it until the dropship decided to roll in.

Just as the aerial vehicle flew over numerous geth platforms dropped from its lower section and slammed into the ground, and it wasn't long before the dust cleared to reveal a large group of geth armatures, rocket troopers and juggernauts.

"Oh this is just wonderful..." Marcus mumbled, motioning for Ashley to take the gunner's seat.

"Target the left armature while I ram the center. Tali, give everything you can to the shields. I'll try to avoid those damn rockets." He ordered.

"The way you drive, I doubt you'll dodge many." Tali said dryly, her tone teasing. Marcus simply smirked as he hit the acellerator, the alliance tank shooting forward. It rose and dropped rapidly as the Mako traversed the skyline at extreme speed, the armature's rising their optics and pulsing with blue energy, their siege pulses ready to fire.

He rammed just as the center armature fired, its siege pulse impacting the front of the Mako just has it rammed fully into the geth tank. Marcus watched as the shield bar dropped to 40% and the vehicle shook slightly and the armature was pushed into a nearby wall. Taking her chance, Ashley spun her gun on the left armature and began pumping heavy rounds into the platform.

Tali scrambled to get the shields working while Marcus backed the vehicle up. He heard the tell tale sounds of the armature exploding, the mech finally defeated as Ashley spun the main gun around to bear on the now highly vulnerable second armature. Without hesitation she fired, the weapon ripping right through its chest and exiting out the end, leaving a clean hole through the mech. This was barely noticed though as it disappeared in a explosion that ripped the armature to shreds.

All the while the rocket troopers, backed up by their juggernaut allies, advanced on the immobile Mako, almost unnoticed until the vehicle's motion tracker began beeping loudly. Ashley nodded at Marcus' prompt and fired a single explosive round into the center of the advancing group, quickly switching to the heavy machine gun.

The round hit just ahead of the geth, the platforms unable to move in time despite spotting the incoming shot. The ground erupted in fire as two rocket troopers ceased to exist and two others were thrown to the ground like rocks on a piece of concrete. The lead juggernaut didn't fair much better, its legs being completely ripped apart as its upper torso fell to the ground, the geth unit crawling towards them in a desperate measure of final defiance, but was ended as the Mako ran over it.

It was only now that they became painfully aware of the fact that the final armature was still standing, and to make matters worse; aiming at them already. Its large optic piece reared at them and fired, the shot impacting the hull and sending a shock through it like a ferret being zapped by a tazer. Noticing the shields were at 40% again, he mentally thanked Tali for getting the shields back up in time.

Without further hesitation, he ordered Ashley to take the driver's seat so he could destroy the armature himself. She complied, moving immediately to sit next to Tali as Marcus strapped in and began operating the mako's main weapon. He aimed directly at the armature, peppering it with the machine gun to dwindle its shields all the while Ashley moved the Mako around in random patterns, making sure to avoid the rockets and siege pulses of the enemy units.

It wasn't long before the armature finally succumbed to their nonstop assault on it, and the rocket troopers and juggernauts quickly followed it as well, leaving the path clear towards the first checkpoint looking structure. It took some effort driving up the wrecked half of the skyline, but once finally past it, they managed to reach the checkpoint with no resistance. Either the geth were unaware of their presence or were already organizing a defense ahead of them.

Once at the building, they were forced through two locked security doors, which Tali easily unlocked with her unmatched hacking skill, and they passed into the building. It was obvious even this place hadn't been saved from the disaster of the battle, as debris, fires and destroyed aircars lay all over the place, dead colonists occassionally seen. It was a complete mess.

"Shepard, I'm hearing comm-chatter, civilian channel. It sounds like survivors are around here. The transmission originated from the building we're in right now. Marking the location on the motion tracker." Liara informed them, obviously keeping an eye on comms despite her non-military training.

"Nice catch. Okay, they're just over there. Moving to investigate." Marcus informed them, motioning towards a small opening to the left of the structure, right next to what looked like a heavy loading ramp used for airtrucks and the offloading of heavy packages. Parking just outside, he motioned for his team to stay inside while he investigated. Despite his orders, Tali had decided to tag along anyway, followed closely by Liara.

Without complaining, Marcus continued to head into the opening, only to find that it opened into a wide open room full of crates, electronic equipment and especially...colonists. Lots of them. Some were in the red and black ExoGeni uniform and others just wore standard, casual civilian wear. _These have to be the wastelanders Fai Dan was talking about._

He moved forward to greet the first few colonists he noticed, but it seemed one of the ExoGeni personnel had other ideas.

"Hey, you! Who the hell are you? And what gives you the right to bring that thing in here?" The officer shouted as he approached them, pointing his last statement at Tali. Marcus decided to screw diplomacy and take on the idiot's attitude.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Shepard of the Alliance Navy and a Council Spectre, my team and I were sent to investigate why this colony went silent. And if you don't mind, that 'thing' has a name, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. I'd prefer you call her Tali from now on you racist fuck. Now tell me what happened here and who you are." Marcus' words matched the officer's word for word in attitude, which the man simply took.

The man was obviously of asian ancestry and his skin was slightly tanned. He had a moustache under his nose and his facial features pointed towards a man in his mid thirties. He looked like a man of authority; add that and the judgment pistol he was holding and you could guess easily that he was the leader of the group.

"I'm Corporate executive Ethan Jeong of ExoGeni Corp. I was placed in charge after the director here was killed by the geth and we've been hiding here ever since. Three days ago it began and three days later its still going. We know the Zhu's Hope colony has been overrun so we decided to call for ExoGeni reinforcements. They should have ships here in a matter of days. But of course, you're here, so what's the point?"

"The Zhu's Hope colony is still standing, we just helped repel an assault there. And why didn't you contact the Alliance? The corporation can't offer a fleet of warships or a regiment of heavily-trained marines." Marcus explained.

"Zhu's Hope? They're still alive? Fascinating." Ethan muttered, letting a hand rest under his chin.

"Fascinating? Why is that fascinating? They're barely surviving."

"Corporate business, none of your business. And if you really are a spectre, I'll have to see your credentials. I'm not going to believe that there is a human spectre until I see ID." Ethan asked authoritarially. Marcus was going to tell the man to stick it, but he decided rubbing his spectre status in his face would suffice. He opened his omnitool and showed the man his credentials. His eyes went wide.

"Well shit, you really are a spectre. Either way I'm not telling you any thing about ExoGeni's projects. Not only are you not part of the ExoGeni Executive Board, but we don't really like handing out information to outsiders. You'll have to kill me."

"Whoa, slow down. Noone said anything about killing, I'm not that sort of spectre. Besides, I'm pretty sure corporate secrets really got my fancy so I'll let you keep your precious secrets if it helps you sleep at night. I won't recommend you try and link up with the Zhu's Hope colony, as doing so would probably trigger an alarm with the geth, but I will recommend you stay put and let us handle this."

"What? You, a quarian and an asari? What are you three going to do against an entire geth army and a frigate housed up in that building?" Ethan asked skeptically.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Shepard; I've fought an army of ten thousand batarians, alone, and won. This quarian, named Tali as I said, is the best hacker in the galaxy and this asari is a wonder with biotics. Top that off with a turian marksman, two alliance marines, and a krogan battlemaster and you pretty much have a small army. So we can do alot, trust me." Without giving Ethan a second glance, he motioned for his team to follow him back to the entrance but found himself stopped when another colonist, a female this time, jumped in front of him.

Once again she was a ExoGeni corporate member, but much older, most likely in her early sixties. Her face was ragged with he age, her brown hair combed to the left of her head, and her skin creased under her eyes.

"Please, stop and listen to me! You have to help me! My daughter, she hasn't come back, I think she may be trapped! You have to-" the woman pleaded in rapidfire, forcing Marcus to raise a hand to stop her.

"Okay, miss...?"

"Baynham. Juliana H. Baynham. I'm a ExoGeni major employee, worked in the growth labs. My daughter, her name is Elizabeth, but we call her Lizbeth for short, she also works for ExoGeni and I don't think she escaped the HQ building until the geth had cut her off." Juliana explained.

"Oh give it up, Juliana. She's most likely dead! She saw how many geth were crawling all over that place!" Ethan shouted.

"She could still be alive! My girl is not a quitter! Please! I'm begging you!" Juliana begged, tears welling up in her eyes. Marcus sighed and rested a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll do all I can to find her. If I find her, I'll let you know. For what it's worth, I don't know what it's like to lose a child, but I damn well will act as if she was mine." Marcus reassured the woman.

"That's all I can ask. Thank you." Juliana smiled.

"You're wasting your time. All you do is find her rotting corpse." Ethan declared.

"Hey, Ethan, I've got an excellent tip for you, it might help you survive the geth." Marcus said, turning to Ethan as he moved to leave.

"What?" Ethan asked, sounding genuinely curious, but he shook it off as illusion.

"Keep your mouth shut so it doesn't alert the geth. They might find it slightly irritating. I know I am." he finished his snarky comment and walked off, leaving Ethan looking very pissed off as he looked at Juliana and shook his head, returning to his work bench. It wasn't long before Marcus and his team were back outside.

"Well that was...amusing." Tali stated.

"Indeed." Liara conceded.

"You ladies enjoying the entertainment?" Marcus asked, a chuckle in his voice.

"Slightly. Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. Needs more _besh'a'lat_." Tali declared, causing both Marcus and Liara to look at her with frowns.

"What? What did I-oh, right, translators. I swear those things are useless." Tali mumbled, slamming the panel for the hatch to open so she could escape her embarassment. Liara for her part simply followed without a word, but the smile was evident in the way she entered the vehicle and Marcus couldn't help but laugh lightly as he entered the vehicle and retook the gunner's position.

The Mako continued down the heavy loader's ramp and down into the lower levels of the checkpoint building until finally arriving on the otherside, coming out the southern skyline, the titantic skyscraper that housed ExoGeni HQ towering ahead in plain view. And just ahead of them, as expected, was a full company of geth forces. Armatures, juggernauts, troopers, rocket troopers, destroyers, the lot.

"Oh what fun this is going to be. Everyone strap in, this is about to get nasty. Geth between us and ExoGeni. I'll punch us a way through while you Ashley...well, I want you to hit it. Don't give them to time to react." Marcus ordered, bearing the gun on the nearest armature before opening fire. The Mako acellerated forward, shots from the Armature's machine gun ricocheting off its thick shields.

"Tali, keep circulating the shields! Everything you've got!" Marcus barked.

"I'm doing the best I can!" Tali barked back, her fingers continuing to fly over the console as she progressed through her task.

Marcus felt a grin tug at his lips as he watched his final explosive round hit home, the armature's shields shattering from the shot. With a final pound and a final recoil from the gun, the armature was hit by 2 tonnes of explosive ordnance and reduced to molten slag; bits of red hot debris flying in all directions.

All the while the geth's smaller and weaker platforms tried futilely to destroy the Mako, their pulse rifles not enough to penetrate the vehicle's tougher shields, and the Mako even ran over a few on its quest towards ExoGeni. Spinning the gun, Marcus prepared to fire on the second and final armature, only to feel the Mako's rear slam forwards as it was hit by a massive amount of ordnance. Turning he saw the source of the attack; six rocket troopers and two juggernauts had snuck behind them.

"Ashley! Back this tincan up! I'll concentrate on that armature, you deal with those fucking rocket troopers on our six!" Marcus roared, continuing his bombardment of the geth tank. The enemy unit's shields seemed to flicker, but they held firm against his assault. The rocket troopers weren't so lucky, being crushed by the Mako's heavy weight, and by the time Ashley had finished backing up, only two of the rocket troopers had survived, the rest had been destroyed.

Ashley realized too late that the rocket troopers were coming to bear their weapons upon the vehicle. As if noticing this, the hatch of the Mako popped open and Wrex popped his head out, his Solokov coming out as the krogan leaned out of the vehicle and fired two quick shots into the troopers, ripping them to shreds. With five shots to a charging juggernaut and two shots to a flanking destroyer, Wrex returned inside the vehicle, closing the hatch behind his bulk.

With Marcus finally finished with the second armature, it didn't take long to mop up any stragglers. The geth dropship apparently had other ideas, but the few shock troopers and snipers it had were insufficient to stop their advance; either being crushed by the tank or ripped to pieces by the Mako's HMG. After the long battle, the team finally found themselves entering ExoGeni HQ after Tali once again hacked the lock.

This time however, they were welcomed by a bigger mess. Apparently the entire second story had caved in, as a whole section of ceiling above was missing and lying all over the ground in front of them, with bits of cabling and support beams lay all over the place, either on top of burning aircars or the dead ExoGeni employees. The parking lot was dark, but not dark enough to impair their sight.

It was obvious they would have to continue on foot into the building, so they continued until they reached the main entrance into the facility, bringing the vehicle to a complete stop. After double checking that all systems were offline but available for quick reboot in case of a quick escape, they gathered their equipment and opened the hatch, stepping out into the musty, vulgar air of the dead building. He could practically smell the rotting corpses even though his filters were turned on.

Wrex slammed onto the ground second last, Tali finally arriving after the quarian was sure the systems were off. She closed the hatch behind her and Marcus was about to begin leading them inside, but movement caught his eye. He raised a fist and crouched but Ashley was forced to explain the signal in a whisper. Finally understanding, they followed Marcus' example, crouching behind him, Wrex barely being capable.

"I saw movement up ahead. It was fast. Something else is in the room with us." Marcus explained, raising his Diamond Back assault rifle and moving forward as he did, motioning for everyone to stay put. Slowly he etched on as he traversed the dirty interior of the facility until a loud snap hit his ears. Before he could react however, he felt a burst of red energy impact him and drain his shields to nothing, but not before overheating his weapon as well. Turning to the source of the attack, he found a geth stalker staring straight at him on the wall.

"Hoppers!" He barked as he holstered his rifle and got out his shotgun. Just in time to as the hopper leapt at him, only to meet a shotgun barrel that blew the synthetic into pieces, white liquid staining his armor. More hoppers appeared and began to assault the small team, but thanks to Ashley's quick thinking, she had saved Liara from being hit by a geth ghost's machine gun. If it hadn't been a battle situation, he was pretty sure Ashley would be smug about it, but he let her off on it.

The hopper's were fast, but they weren't fast enough and before long all the hoppers had been blown to pieces, eliminated or were nothing but white patches on the ground.

"Keep your eyes peeled for further hostile movement. I don't want them getting the jump on us again. Now move out."

Move out they did, but not before coming across a human corpse that had been devoured by a pack of varren, the poor colonist's torso the only part left. His name tag read 'ExoGeni Minor Thomas Gregson.' Marcus twisted his head away from the gruesome sight, not wanting to watch anymore of it.

This ended now.

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_0725 hours. _

_Loading Bay, Kowloon-Class Modular Conveyor MSV Fedele, Kepler Verge Cluster, Herschel System._

_Eden Prime War._

_Doctor Saleon Yules, Operative Robert Reinburg._

Patiently the salarian waited. And waited. And waited. It was taking a long time for a docking prodecure that should have been over with five minutes ago. _What is that Reinburg up to in there. _

Just as doctor Saleon was about to go investigate, he heard and then saw the door slide open as a large group of military human commandos strolled through, with a few research techs and standard soldiers moving behind them, carrying numerous pieces of equipment. The soldiers wore what looked like alliance medium armor, but it sported cyan and gold colors. These weren't alliance but they walked with a pose of professionalism. _Hardcore mercenaries? Hitsquad? _

The name named Reinburg then made his appearence. The man had a short beard that ended just past his chin but was thick and puffy, had deep blue eyes and sported long hair that ended in a ponytail at the back of his helmet. Saleon was spooked. Not by the man who had boarded his originally secretly located ship, but because of the logo emblazoned on the man's shoulders; a golden hexagon with two flanking lines on its sides at the lower edges, both also sporting the golden colors. Only one organization housed that symbol. _Cerberus. What does those pro-human morons want with my ship!_

"You're Cerberus." Saleon declared as he took Reinburg's hand and shook it. The man smiled.

"Goodeye, doctor. It looks like our secret is out. Yes, the Illusive Man himself as found need of your services and sent us to find you. I trust you've located the Normandy?" Reinburg asked while leading Saleon across the loading bay and towards the labs.

"After streaming through my huge amounts of contacts, yes. It's on Feros. Fighting off a geth attack I think." Saleon stated.

"Excellent. Now all we need to do is get some soldiers down there to tag the ship. Thank you for your assistance Doctor Saleon, but we require one last thing off your ship." Reinburg said, grinning, motioning towards the loading bay entrance.

"What?" Saleon asked wearily.

"We have...experiments of our own to conduct and I think the Fedele would be an excellent place to do those tests. I already have the test subjects being brought onboard. Reinburg once again motioned towards the airlock, and this time Saleon looked. There it was, Cerberus commandos were walking alongside, and keeping on a tight leash, the deadliest creatures this galaxy had ever known, a species that was meant to be extinct.

The animals had red scaly hides and were like gigantic bugs the size of ten year old children. They sported four powerful legs that allowed them to travel and cheetah like speeds and had six eyes folloed with a large crest on their head. They had no tails but instead had four 'tail' like arms that had deadly pincers on the end of each one. These creatures weren't just animals, they were sentient beings. Ones thought wiped out long ago.

"Impossible...it can't be..." Saleon stuttered.

"It is Doctor. We have an army to build." Reinburg smiled, turning to the creature was again as it disappeared behind a lab door.

"The rachni have returned."

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_1746 hours._

_Lower Parking Levels, ExoGeni Headquarters, Prothean Skyline, Feros. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Only a minute had passed since the hopper ambush and the team had dropped into the opposite parking lot, landing in a pile of garbage and debris. This place was a total mess, and it was all thanks to the geth. So far, apart from the hoppers, no geth resistance had even been encountered in the building, which was starting to stir him the wrong way. It just didn't feel...right. None of it did.

Before long they reached outside, and Marcus lowered his rifle slightly as he noticed no enemy units, just another deserted, completely decimated, car park. He could hear growls erupting from all around him and those were followed with barking not from a dog, but from a more alien creature. They seemed to get closer and he spun to its origin, to his right, where a young human woman, panting heavily, ran into him, and was screaming. Turning to see who she was running from, she found it wasn't who, but it. Varren were heading straight for them, and they had that horrifying look in their eyes; hunger.

With as much care as possible, he moved the civilian behind him and barked at his team to open fire on the rabid animals. His Diamond Back also soon joined the cacophony of gunfire, arcs of bullets flying towards their targets. The varren were ripped to pieces by the high-velocity rounds of shotguns, pistols and assault rifles; bits of flesh and blood left all over the place, and even the bodies of the alien dogs as they fell, one by one.

Only one varren had reached them, and it had leapt at Wrex, and both of them tackled on the ground until Wrex stood over it and emptied a shotgun shell into the animal's face, killing it permanently. Wrex simply looked at Marcus with a toothy grin, gaining a chuckle from the human spectre as he turned back to the human colonist. Only now did he notice her sidearm and her ExoGeni uniform.

She had smooth skin, obviously being in her twenties. She used black eyeliner and her hair was down to her chin height, brownish/black color while the right side of it covered some of her face. Her eyes were a green color, but looking more closely, he could see the resemblance. _Juliana's daughter._

"Elizabeth Baynham?" Marcus asked without thinking, his team moving out to check the area for anymore varren or possibly geth lying in wait. The young woman was visibly surprised, but answer nonetheless.

"Y-yes, how do you know that name? You're an alliance marine right? You're here to help...right?" The girl confirmed to be named Lizbeth asked.

"N7 Special Forces actually, now recently posted as Council Spectre. I'm Lieutenant Commander Shepard and we got a tip that a geth battlegroup had invaded the colony. We were sent to investigate. We landed at Zhu's Hope, and then we linked up with your mother and Ethan Jeong's surviving group. Then we came here and found you. Your mother told me to find you." Marcus explained closely.

"I see. So where's the rest of you? You must have brought a battalion." Lizbeth asked.

"Uh...we're it, lady." Wrex's voice came, moving to stand beside Marcus once more.

"Wait...you're all they sent? A squad? We needed alot more troops to fight these geth off!" Lizbeth complained in absolute shock, clearly distressed.

"Just us is alot." Ashley added.

Lizbeth simply sighed, "I guess you're right. Damn it, everything's gone to hell ever since we found the Thorian. The geth must be after it. Why else would they attack Zhu's Hope?" Lizbeth muttered, seemingly talking to herself.

"Thorian? Ma'am, what's going on here?" Marcus asked, interpreting the woman's mumbles. Her eyes shot up immediately to meet his.

"It's-um, it's a unique plant-based lifeform that ExoGeni found when they were constructing Zhu's Hope. It's essentially just a huge plant with sentience. We've been studying it ever since. Ethan was very optimistic about the oppurtunities we had to learn from it."

"Why would the geth be interested in a plant? Doesn't seem like Saren can do much with it." Liara pondered out loud.

"Well the Thorian did have unique mind-control capabilities," Lizbeth added, "That's what ExoGeni was so interested in. Whatever happens though, we can't let the geth get the Thorian and we can't let the Thorian live. We have to stop them and destroy it!"

"Why? Why is this Thorian so dangerous?" Tali chirped in.

"There's no time to explain. Look, I'll go with you. You'll need my help to get through security checkpoints anyway." Lizbeth explained.

"I can't take you, Lizbeth. We're special forces, we operate as infiltrators, not rescue-support units. I can't guarantee your safety. It would be best if you waited here. Don't try to reach Zhu's Hope either, the geth are scouring the skyline." Marucs informed her.

"Okay-I see. I'll-I guess I'll just stay put. Go-goo-good luck in there." Lizbeth said, moving past them and exiting the way she came.

"I feel like she was lying to us. Like she wasn't telling the whole story." Wrex mused aloud.

"Agreed-" Marcus began.

"Oh! Almost forgot!" Lizbeth's voice came in again and Marcus felt her employee's ID card drop into his hands, "That'll get you past all security checkpoints!" those were the last words spoken before the woman finally disappeared.

"Well...shall we?" Marcus asked and upon everyone's nod, he turned to move towards the otherside of the parking lot. His comm crackled.

"Shepard." Marcus answered.

"Vakarian here. We've got a geth dropship down here and its getting a little nosey. Me and Kaidan are going to set up defense barricades incase they deploy troops. We're coordinating with Martinez right now. Just...whatever you're doing, get it done quickly. Garrus out." With that, the turian's voice faded off once more.

"You heard the man. Let's destroy that geth frigate and get back to Zhu's Hope before the geth decide they want to party." Marcus barked, motioning to double time it.

"Shouldn't we warn them about the 'Thorian?'" Tali asked worriedly.

"They can handle themselves. I doubt that Thorian will know we're coming eitherway." Marcus explained before hitting the door panel and moving inside.

_Yet again, mind-control does sound awfully suspicious. And under Zhu's Hope? There is something Lizbeth didn't tell us, and I plan to find out what._

**"So the mission to Feros was intense, would you say?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Nothing compared to what we'd face two years later or even during the Reaper War, but it was definitely intense, and it probably provided the backbone for our future battles."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"You mentioned something about Feros affecting Tali and Shepard's relationship?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Let me put you on hold."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001**

**"I don't have time for games, 001. How did Feros affect Tali and Shepard's relationship?**

**"I just told you. Cryptic language can be confusing, but all you have to do is connect the dots to find out the hidden meaning."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**FOR PROJECT CONVENIENCE AND ENHANCEMENT OF XENOPHORIC INTERPRETATION AND LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION, WE HAVE CREATED AN ARCHIVE DEDICATED TO TRANSLATION. MOST OF THESE ARE NOT FULLY ACCURATE, BUT MANY ARE AS ACCURATE AS THEY CAN BE.**

**MEKA'LISH: BROTHER OF DIFFERENT KINSHIP/SPECIES. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER.' KHELISH. **

**BOSH'TET: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.**

**KEELAH SE'LAI: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.**

**UHRARNIZ: PIECE OF EXCREMENT. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT.' KHELISH.**

**REIST: BAG OF WASTE. IT HAS NO PROPER MEANING IN THE HUMAN ENGLISH VOCAB, BUT CAN OFTEN BE TRANSLATED AS 'FUCK' OR 'SHIT'. KHELISH.**

**WUMBRI: A DEXTRO ANIMAL NATIVE TO RANNOCH. SIMILIAR TO AN EARTH RHINOCEROS. KHELISH.**

**IKILISH'VARSI: UNKNOWN. DATA CORRUPTED. KHELISH. **

**I'NASH'TOLO'PAH: UNKNOWN. DATA CORRUPTED. KHELISH.**

**AILIST'KIL'TRA'GRO: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.**

**U'LAI: MALE GENITALIA. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'DICK'. KHELISH.**

**GETH: SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE. KHELISH.**

**FILE ENDED. KHELISH AND OTHER XENOPHORIC VOCABULARIES REMAIN INCOMPLETE UNTIL MORE INFORMATION CAN BE ACQUIRED. WE WILL ATTEMPT TO ACCESS FURTHER FILES AND DECODE THE INFORMATION. **

**UPON REQUEST FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, AUTHORIZATION CODE AMBER HAS BEEN SANCTIONED FOR THE USE OF HACKING TO INFILTRATE THE QUARIAN STOCK EXCHANGE. AS PER PRIORITY EPSILON-BRAVO, THE FIRST STAGE OF HUMANITY'S CYBERATTACK ON THE QUARIAN REPUBLIC WILL COMMENCE IN APPROXIMATELY A MONTH. QUARIAN MILITARY RUNS SOLEY ON ELECTRONIC HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE, WHICH MEANS CYBERWARFARE WILL PROVE DEVASTATINGLY EFFECTIVE. REENACTMENT OF MORNING WAR IS ENVITABLE. **

**AS OF NOW AN IMMEDIATE CODE RED IS ANNOUNCED. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. GET THE INFORMATION NOW. IF YOU DON'T, IT MEANS TOTAL WAR BETWEEN HUMANITY AND THE QUARIAN RACE.**

**AND NEITHER WILL WIN.**


	14. Chapter 11 Skyfall Pt2

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Just finished the Citadel DLC and it was amazing. To celebrate what has to be the funniest, most nostalgic and fantastically epic DLC in Mass Effect history (the music STILL doesn't beat LOTSB, but what the hell...) the first section will be dedicated to a location in that DLC. Enjoy. (Warning: The location of section one can be considered a spoiler alert if you haven't played the DLC. Read at own discretion)**_

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

**SKYFALL PART TWO**

_June 20, 2183_

_0621 hours._

_Main Bedroom, Anderson's Apartment, Tiberius Towers, Romulus Ward, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Captain David Edward Anderson._

Note to self; whenever waking up, remember that the world is a very groggy place and try not to move until you can clear that up. But for Anderson? Waking up instantly incase of trouble was part of his N7 job description, he was ready for anything, everything and the unexpected. His sleep had mostly been dreamless, as all he could think about was this supposed Reaper threat. Should he worry more about the geth or the reapers?

Right now none of that mattered. What mattered right now was getting out of this damn bed.

Slowly but groggily, Anderson pushed the bed sheets off of him and moved into a seated position on the edge of the bed, moving his hands up to rub his eyes of the groggy moisture that had made his eyes witness a very blurry world. With the moisture now mostly gone, he stood up and approached his wardrobe, pulling a basic dressing gown and slippers. It wasn't long before he arrived in the kitchen and had some breakfast while watching the ANN, Alliance News Network.

After having a shower, the Alliance soldier finally got back into his Alliance uniform and left the apartment, taking the elevator down to the Silversun Strip. It had come to his attention that a man named Sergeant Bailey had recently challenged him to a battle in the Armax Combat Arena and Anderson rarely passed up such oppurtunities. Of course, he didn't even know who Bailey was or how he got his extranet address, but it was a challenge and he never forfeited those.

The Silversun was the usual, the streets brisling with asari, turians, hanar, volus and all the other the Citadel races, all moving around and executing their daily business. The Silver Coast Casino was throbbing with hardcore players of all classes, while the Castle Arcade had gamers of every style playing. Games like Shattered Eezo and Alliance Corsairs were among the most popular.

Any other time he'd mingle with the crowd and have fun, but right now he had a battle to win.

Entering the Armax Arsenal Arena, he had a large set of stairs, three way leading up into the main atrium. The main atrium was quite a large facility, with a single rotating advertisement booth situated in the middle, the words 'Armax Arsenal Combat Arena' slowly rotating around its upper half. To his left was a terminal where the facility's VI, taking the model of a female turian, which was the assitant and to his right was the leaderboards.

He gave a weak smile at the place; it was large and stylish, he'd give them that, but it felt over extravagant. If there was a war coming, and there definitely was, this place would be an excellent training facility for Alliance and multiracial trainees. Program it with geth enemies and then send them in.

"Anderson, over here." A man's voice called out, one he recognized as Bailey's from the recording, and he turned to its source to see a man in C-Sec uniform, Bailey, walking towards him.

"You must be my anonymous challenger, Sergeant." Anderson said, smiling as he took the man's preoffered hand and shook it. Bailey simply gave a half-hearted laugh.

"Oh shit, right, introductions. Sergeant Armando Owen Bailey, Citadel Security Services. I'm off duty so I thought, why not challenge Captain Anderson, the supposed best N7 in existence. Used to be a N5 myself, but I retired long before I reached N6; I had family and I had to choose between them and my military career."

"I can understand that. I used to have this woman in my life once, but then...well, I was presented with the decision you had. I've sworn an oath to protect humanity against all foreign threats." Anderson sighed, remembering Kahlee and how she'd feel right now. Last time he'd seen her had been during the days of working with Saren, back when he wasn't a rogue spectre, and how he'd fallen in love with the woman. Now she worked at Jon Grissom Academy, named after the founder of the Elysium colony and the man who took humanity to Mars where they discovered the Mass Relay.

"Choosing duty over love. Shit, don't know if I could make that kind of a sacrifce." Bailey admitted, looking grimly at the ground.

"I did it so people like you don't have to," Anderson replied, nodding solemnly before changing the subject, "Anyway, you had a challenge to offer me. I'm still a little suspicious over how you managed to acquire my extranet address."

Bailey chuckled in response, crossing his arms as he shook his head left and right, "It wasn't exactly hard. I mean you've made a big name for yourself on the Citadel. Finding you was kid's games. I mean they had posters all over the place with your address flashing in bright, bold letters."

"I'll have to have a word with Udina about that. So, who are we versing?" Anderson asked, motioning for Bailey to follow him past the 'Athletes Only' checkpoint and down the stairs into the control room.

"Think you can handle Eclipse mercenaries?" Bailey asked, a big grin on his face.

"Handle? I've handled drill instructors that were tougher than goddamn krogan. I think I can handle a bunch of paid thugs." Anderson smirked, watching as Bailey punched in the commands into the command interface before leading him behind the entrance stairs and into a preparation room.

"Highest score wins, old man." Bailey said, pulling out a tiny spherical device before activating it, a M-7 Lancer assault rifle materializing in his hand. Holographic technology at its best.

"Watch out Bailey, I might have to charge you for insubordination." Anderson explained as they stepped into the elevator. Bailey simply gave him a raised eyebrow as the doors closed and the elevator descended to admit them into the holographic stadium.

Down below, all that could be heard was a certain C-Sec officer shouting.

"Son of a bitch, you wouldn't!"

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_0758 hours._

_R&D Labs, ExoGeni Headquarters, Prothean Skyline, Feros. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

"Tali, get this door open. Liara, cover her back. Wrex, Ashley, your with me, scout the area." Marcus ordered, and everyone moved to execute their assigned tasks. So far, traversing the building had been a chore, with either debris block their way or insane amounts of geth troops blocking leeway. Progress was tedious at best.

Now they found themselves in the Research and Development Labs, aka R&D labs, which was just as ruined as the rest of the building. Nonexistent lighting, brown, dusty, rusted corridors, destroyed ceilings were just part of a long list of things the geth had done to the place. The place looked more like a refined hell then it did a corporate building.

He watched as Ashley and Wrex disappeared into two seperate rooms before approaching a section of wall that showed medical reports on what looked like the Zhu's Hope colonists. It was quite obvious that the ExoGeni eggheads up here had been studying them for scientific purposes, but for what he wasn't sure. The data was all corrupted or erased by the geth attack.

It wasn't long before Ashley and Wrex returned to report all rooms were clear, and they were just in time to hear Tali open the door and step inside. Marcus took point, as he always did while on ground missions, his spectre shotgun seated neatly against his shoulder as he motioned for his squad to follow. The corridor was as foul-smelling and debris filled as the last, just with more lighting, but even that flickered on and off.

Five minutes turned into thirty minutes of mindlessly chasing around poor clues and trails, and it took them a large amount of time to finally find a stairway that took them up and to the forty-fifth story, where they found the large hulking form of a krogan's back waiting for them. He turned to his team, speaking in a whisper.

"Get down, krogan up ahead. His back is turned, I'll deal with this." Marcus ordered silently, motioning for his team to crouch.

"Oh no you don't, I'm coming with." Wrex declared, following behind Marcus.

"Very well, but stay silent. Don't alert him to our presence..." Marcus ordered, moving into the room in a crouch, followed closely by his krogan comrade.

"I'm sorry, but access to classified data is restricted to ExoGeni Executive Employee Access, Level Three. You do not have sufficient authorization to enable use of this console. Please see your supervisor for further assistance." Informed the ExoGeni VI, modelled after a human male, said to the krogan, who was apparently trying to access ExoGeni research information.

"Damn it, tell me what I want to know or I'll blow your virtual ass into actual dust!" the krogan boomed, stepping forward to emphasize the VI, but it wasn't going to work.

"There is nothing I can do for you. Please report to your supervisor for further assistance as directed." the VI repeated.

"Stupid machine!" The krogan shouted in pure rage, moving to slam a fist into the console. Wrex, decidedly having enough, got out of his cover and fired a blast from his Solokov into the approaching krogan, staggering the huge beast so much that he collapsed into the wall. The krogan commander, his features bubbling in rage, turned and glowed with biotics as the krogan fired a ball of biotic energy directly at Wrex. Wrex also brought his biotics up, bringing a barrier up just in time to shake off the krogan's attack.

"ExoGeni security must remind you that gunfire is not tolerated on the premises." the VI informed them.

"Oh shut up." Marcus spat at the VI, which for its part didn't respond.

With his attack deflected, the krogan decided to charge Wrex, which turned out to be his biggest mistake. Wrex reacted with the speed of a veteran, his barriers disappearing as he brought his Solokov up in a uppercut. The krogan had to much momentum to change course, and his chin shot upward as Wrex's Solokov slammed into it, the krogan battlemaster pulling the trigger as he did so. A shower of gore poured onto Wrex's features, the krogan commander's head now nothing but a bloody hole.

Without so much as missing a beat, Wrex slid his shotgun back onto the magnetic clamp on his waist and turned towards Marcus, motioing for him to come out. Marcus did so and approached the VI, followed by his team who examined the dead krogan with wide eyes, glancing between the dead corpse and the gore-decorated face of Wrex.

"A real krogan wouldn't have been so reckless. Saren's krogan are pathetic. They are not real krogan." Wrex stated simply, and Marcus merely raised a brow as he turned towards the VI.

"Welcome back Executive Elizabeth Baynham, what inquiry might you have?" the VI asked.

Marcus was taken by surprise. Not by the the VI's sudden response, but by being addressed by that name.

"Uh...how do you know I'm Lizbeth?" Marcus asked.

"Your ID card registers you as Miss Baynham. Do you have a formal inquiry?" the VI asked again.

"Tell me everything you can about the Thorian." Marcus ordered. This Thorian creature was occupying his mind. What was it exactly? What was the extent of its mind control? Why would Saren have a need for that? Why did the geth try and destroy it instead? So many questions he needed answered. He felt like Lizbeth hadn't told him the whole story.

"Species 37, species designation the 'Thorian', is an advanced sentient plant lifeform that exists under the Zhu's Hope outpost. Discovered in 2179 by ExoGeni pioneer group primary, the ExoGeni board of directors ordered a direct examination of the being by using the Zhu's Hope colonists as control subjects. Here, ExoGeni was able to study the being's mind control capabilities. It can take control of the mind directly and of any species, including humans."

"Why is when scientist do something, it always turns out they have some kind of ulterior motive? Why are the scientists always the bad guys?" Ashley asked dryly.

"Lizbeth lied to us. ExoGeni was just studying the Thorian, they were actively letting it take control of the colonists!" Marcus exclaimed before turning back to the VI, "Why would the geth want the Thorian?"

"Unknown. Synthetic presence suggests that a deal couldn't be made with the creature and therefore they decided to destroy it." the VI responded in its monotone voice.

"How long has this creature existed? How old is it?" Tali quipped in.

"It has existed for millions for years, therefore outliving even the Protheans. It is possible the Thorian may hold the secrets as to why the Protheans vanished fifty thousand years ago." the VI explained.

"The Reapers..." Marcus muttered.

"Reapers. This information is not found in known databanks." the VI responded to his non-question.

"Of course it isn't. Come on, we've got to destroy this frigate and get back to Zhu's Hope. Looks like this mission just turned sideways." Marcus quickly motioned for his team to follow him into the next room, which was, unsurprisingly, just like the rest of the place.

"Logging you out." the VI said, its voice distant as the damaged door closed behind them.

Marcus shook his head in amusement as he brought his shotgun back up and continued to lead his team into the depths of the ExoGeni base. Liara's voice rose up.

"What the VI said adds up now. Why those colonists were acting strange. Every time they were about to tell us something important, they always stopped and went on to something else, headaches they said." the asari pointed out.

"While in retrospect they were actually brainwashed by the Thorian. Arcelia, Fai Dan, everyone. Great. For all we know, Ethan and Juliana could be among them as well. We need to find this Thorian and deal with it. But I like I said, that geth frigate comes first." Marcus declared, motioning for his team to raise weapons and prepare for forced entry.

"Let's send these geth bastards straight to _yeeshra._" Tali said with pure hatred in the young quarian's voice, something that even scared Marcus a little. But he couldn't blame her, these synthetics had exiled her people from their homeworld, even if the quarians did attack first. With a raised hand he motioned for Tali to take his rear while Wrex, Ashley and Liara took the other side of the door.

"Tali, use your shotgun and cover my flank, I'll cut a path straight to that claw. The rest of you, take the rear. Tali may be a good engineer, but one shot to her suit and she's a goner. Keep her protected." Marcus barked, swapping his shotgun for his Diamond Back rifle.

"I'm tougher then I look, but I appreciate the gesture," Tali smiled behind her mask and brought her omnitool to bear, shooting what looked like a small device into the room, "Let's see what Chiktika can do."

"Chiktika?" Marcus asked, confused.

"Chiktika vas Paus, she's my...combat drone." Tali finished, and the orange, spherical holographic projection of a drone appeared in the open space.

"Nice. How much does it cost to get one?" Marcus asked.

"I, uh...wouldn't know. I built this one myself. Programming, systems and everything." Tali explained, still smiling behind her mask.

"You built it? From scratch? Tali, you're. A. Genius." Marcus said, patting her shoulder with his free hand before resting it back on the trigger of his rifle, leaving a very embarassed and blushing Tali.

Without further banter, Marcus rushed in, Tali behind him. The first thing he saw was that they were on a large balcony overlooking another lab, where a giant claw from the geth frigate had wedged itself inside, leaving the balcony a destroyed wreck and the lab below a mess. What was odd about it was the bright white light glowing at the end of the claw, and the two shock troopers that sat, knees on the ground, facing the light, both of their optics lowered at the ground in what looked like a place of worship.

"The geth...are religious?" Marcus only just got out as the two shock trooper's optics snapped towards them and they equipped their pulse rifles with machine like accuracy. This accuracy wasn't enough though for them to stop the speeding, incendiary projectiles that hit the platforms dead center, both of them falling to the ground destroyed before they could even raise kinetic barriers.

Turning, Marcus saw it was Chiktika that had fired the shots. He looked at Tali and laughed.

"Anything else that drone doesn't have?" Marcus asked.

"It hasn't got mass acellerator weapons or kinetic barriers. It does have a basic hacking algorithm though, followed by numerous incendiary weapons and a built in overload program to deal with shields. Its...efficient." Tali explained.

"Well, I'd say Chiktika's proving to be very useful. Come on, I don't see anything we can use to destroy this claw so we might as well continue. Liara, can you bring up a map of this place?" Marcus asked.

Liara simply nodded, bringing up her omnitool to show a hologram of their level, "Yes, there is another claw in the shuttle bay. Its where they offload supplies. Hopefully we can find something of use there." Liara explained, letting the map disappear as her omnitool deactivated.

"Right. Let's move. The faster we get rid of this frigate, the better." Marcus decided, motioning for the team to keep moving through the numerous corridors. They encountered the occassional geth platform and a few krogan but apart from that, the amount of resistance was below standard and pretty much unexpected.

"I can bet you anything that they're conserving forces for the shuttle bay. They must know we're close." Wrex pointed out.

"That or they're disorganized. They probably didn't expect anyone to attack a heavily armed geth frigate head on." Ashley suggested.

"Geth are never disorganized. They're machines, they process missions and operations in milliseconds. They can't make mistakes. They know we're here and are probably formulating a trap. Making us losen our defenses and then spring it. For all we know the whole place could be sealed off." Tali retorted.

"We don't know until we find out. But Tali's right, be ready for anything. If the geth get the jump on us, you know where to hit them; straight for the optics or processing unit." Marcus concluded, the team finally arriving at their destination, the words 'Shuttle Bay' in capital white letters appearing of the doors, albeit barely. The doors were jammed halfway and fires raged to their right.

"Wrex, get this door open." Marcus ordered.

"Easier done then said." Wrex stated, a large crocidilian grin appearing on his features as he unleashed a ball of dark energy hurling at the door, sending it right off its control circuits and slamming immediately into the geth frigate's claw. He could hear the mehanical clicking of numerous geth, their optics spinning to face the intrusion.

"Not exactly subtle, but I'd take that any time of the day over subtle. Look alive people, we've got geth incoming. I count twelve foot mobiles." Marcus ran immediately and slid into cover just as the geth pulse rifles unleashed a horde of gunfire over his head, hitting Wrex. Initially he was going to yell for the krogan to take cover, but when he saw the krogan take a shot in the shoulder and immediately heal it, he smiled. Wrex noticed his worried expression and dropped into cover next to him, smiling.

"What? You didn't think a few geth were going to drop me did you? Remember, krogan can regenerate!" With that, Wrex lifted up and unleashd numerous biotic attacks before following them with concentrated fire from his Solokov.

"I'll remember that for future reference. Tali! Get Chiktika up there and get it to pester the hell out of those bastards! Liara, Ashley, pepper their flank and give Tali room to work her magic! I'm moving up, Wrex you're with me!" With that, Marcus rushed out, watching as the staccato beat of Ashley's assault rifle and Liara's pistol began hitting the geth's flanks like a swarm of bees, giving him enough time to slide into cover just as his shields imploded.

"You got a better idea Shepard? I like your style, but for a human its suicidal. You simply don't have the regenerative capabilities." Wrex pointed out a he joined Shepard in cover, the krogan waiting for his Solokov to cooldown.

"That's why I've got you Wrex. I need you to create a distraction while I deal with that juggernaut on the stairs. There's also..." Marcus began, but like precision timing, Tali's voice answered.

"Chiktika's up and shooting! Tell me where you want her!" Tali shouted over the sound of the geth pulse rifles. Marcus heard Liara's warning just in time to use his biotics to throw a overly curious geth rocket trooper into another geth platform, leaving both of them vulnerable as Liara finished both off with a warp shot.

"Tali, keep that juggernaut distracted. Wrex, do what you do best! I'm going to give that juggernaut a new asshole!" With that, Marcus leapt out of cover and ran towards the geth units without giving his squad time to object. They didn't bother as Wrex already had a unlucky shock trooper pinned up against a wall while Tali's drone began pestering the twelve foot juggernaut with overload attacks that the geth platform quickly overrid.

Ignoring the other platforms, Marcus used his biotics to allow him to biotically jump onto the juggernaut's back. Rearing his feet back, he leapt and felt his arms wrap around cold metal, his hands wrapped around the towering form of the juggernaut. It gave a mechanical whirring of surprise, but quickly responded by slamming its back into the wall, knocking the breath out of Marcus' lungs but not weakening his grip.

Another geth trooper down below was rearing its pulse rifle down on him, but Tali suddenly entered the scene with a posture that looked purely murderous, the quarian's shotgun ripping the geth's armor open like a can of tupari. But the quarian didn't stop, she continued to shoot shot after shot into the destroyed geth, leaving it a utter mess of broken chasising.

He was forced to watch as a geth rocket trooper prepared to fire a rocket on the quarian's back, Tali being angrily oblivious. He meant to shout out a warning, but he was brought back to the present and realized he was still on the juggernaut. With a huge, booming war cry, Marcus drew out his spectre shotgun and shoved it into the back of the 'hood' of the geth's optics, pressing the trigger. It was ripped apart like the force of a pressurized cannon on a watermelon, causing the destroyed juggernaut to fall forward into the ground.

Marcus suddenly remembered after that what had happened to Tali. To his relief and shock, he saw that she was helping Wrex clean up the geth. Turning, he saw Tali's wannabe killer and found the geth wedged neatly inside the claw, its torso completely ripped apart. He could see the telltale aftermath of a biotic throw. _Wrex, Liara, whoever did it, you bloody hero._

Chuckling, he helped his friends clean up the geth units, including their poor excuse for reinforcements, and then finally turned to look at the claw.

"Great, nothing here either. What a waste of time." Marcus cursed under his breath, hands on his hips in a irritated posture.

"Wait, look at the claw." Tali said, obviously having an epiphany.

"I've been look at it for the past five minutes. Its not like I'm going to develop laser eyes Tali." Marcus pointed out sarcastically.

"No, I mean look where it's situated," Tali responded with a roll of her eyes, pointing at the claw, "Its right inside the shuttle bay entrance. If we could find a way to shut those doors..." Tali began, but trailed off to let Marcus figured it out. Figure it out he did.

"...we can use the doors to crush the claw and cut it off. Tali, you are my little genius. Spread out, find a control panel." Marcus barked, and his team spread out, but Tali seemed to follow him instead. He took his chance to talk to her. Tali herself however was still blushing over how she had addressed her. _MY little genius. He called me his little genius. Keelah, he probably meant nothing by it. No! Remember what Kaidan said!_

"Tali, what you did before was reckless. You could have gotten yourself killed." Marcus chasitised her. It wasn't really the recklessness he was worried about, it was her. He had almost gotten her killed and that worried him alot.

"I'm so-sorry. I just saw it about to kill you and I-I just reacted." Tali responded, and he put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay. Just...next time you do something like that, remember to bring backup" he said, smiling before moving off to find a control panel.

"I will..." Tali trailed off, cutting herself off before she said it. _Go ahead, say it. Call him your Yol'tiya. You know its what you want. _Tali shut herself up and continued to follow Shepard. _Its what I way, but not what HE wants. Keep silent for now. Plenty of time for this after Feros. _It wasn't long before they found what they were looking for, but Tali had to hack into it as for some reason some ExoGeni genius had decided to lock it.

"Okay, here goes nothing..." Tali muttered before pressing the initiation sequence, the quarian, followed by the rest of the team, turning to have the claw as the doors slammed shut on the claw, the sound of snapping and screeching metal could be heard. Finally, as if hours had gone by, the claw snapped in half, the half on their side laying useless. They ran to the windows just in time to watch as the other claws were ripped out of the building as the geth frigate plummetted into the clouds below.

Then all they heard was a resounding boom, a huge explosion reaching up and above the clouds. They had destroyed the frigate.

"I hope that ship was full with those geth bastards." Tali said venomously, still watching the plume of smoke and flame rising up and above the clouds like a mushroom cloud.

"Okay people, let's clear out. We've got to pick up Lizbeth, get to Juliana and then get to Zhu's Hope. We've got one last objective to complete." With that, Marcus and his team headed for the stairs, watching as power began to be restored to the building.

"Interesting. It seems all this cabling and claws were more than to keep the frigate attached, but they were usurping all the energy to keep the frigate powered. Now that we've cut the frigate off, the building's regaining power." Liara stated.

"So I guess this time the elevators are totally available?" Ashley asked skeptically.

"Yes, Gunnery Chief, we don't have to walk up long stairs anymore." Marcus responded with a chuckle.

"Good to know. Always hated walking. I was paid to shoot, not stroll." Ashley responded with a smile, the odd pair of squaddies entering the nearest elevator as they hit the button for the ground floor.

_Now we've just got to take out a mind-controlling plant. How hard could it be?_

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_0803 hours._

_Lower Parking Levels, ExoGeni Headquarters, Prothean Skyline, Feros. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, ExoGeni Executive Elizabeth Jari Baynham._

"Commander, the power's backup! I guess I have you to thank for that!"

Marcus sighed in annoyance at the sound of Lizbeth's voice coming from in front of him. The woman run up to them, smiling broadly.

"Yeah, we did. But its time to come clean, Lizbeth. You've been lying to us." Marcus stated, crossing his arms at the woman, as did the rest of his team. Well, he couldn't say they didn't act the part very well. Lizbeth, for her part, simply froze in place and looked at him quizzically, glancing at Wrex nervously.

"What? What are you talking-" Lizbeth began, but Tali's angry voice forestalled her.

"Don't lie to us! ExoGeni was using the colonists as test subjects and you knew this entire time! You brainwashed innocent civilians!" The female quarian shouted angrily, Marcus giving her a nod which caused her to backdown, muttering apology at getting worked up.

Lizbeth simply let her arms sag, "It's all my fault. I tried to warn the colonial authority about the Thorian as well as the attack. I was the only executive, as well as Tom to actually openly speak out against it. I tried to talk them out of it, but ExoGeni put both of us on probation and said that if we continued to complain we'd become one of the test subjects. I didn't want to become brainwashed so I kept my mouth shut." Lizbeth finished explaining with a long, overdone sigh, "I didn't mean for any of this to happen!"

Marcus shook his head slowly and tiredly before moving up and putting a hand on the young woman's shoulder.

"Look, I'm not going to say what you did was okay, but I'm telling you that you don't have to take the blame for this. You became involved in something you weren't paid for. If anyone should pay for this, its ExoGeni. Time to pay Jeong a visit." Marcus said with malice in his voice, motioning for his team to approach the Mako.

"Shepard, we're not going to do anything...harmful, to Jeong are we?" Tali asked scaredly.

"Depends on how cooperative he is." Marcus said with less malice, but it still chilled Tali to the bone. This wasn't Shepard. He was better than this. She shook it off for now, letting her thoughts slip away as she moved into the Mako, seating her armageddon shotgun on her lap.

"Excuse me, Commander but...have you seen my mother anywhere?" Lizbeth asked just as Marcus was about to finish entering the Mako. He turned to answer her question.

"Funny you should ask that, we came across your mother and some other survivors along the way here. She's with Jeong and a few other colonists and executives. We'll take you there now. Juliana was worried about you." Marcus informed the woman, and she practically squeled in joy as she leapt into the Mako, and Marcus simply entered, shaking his head with a grin.

The ride back was relatively uneventful, with most of the geth forces in full retreat, taking their krogan vanguard troops with them. If there was another geth ship somewhere, it was long gone. No dropships, armatures, juggernauts, nothing. Just the plain morning skies of Feros and the decimated road of the skyline. His comm crackled with activity.

"Shepard, Garrus here. We've got a problem, like FUBAR kind of problem." Garrus stated.

"Let me guess, the colonists are acting weird?" Marcus asked, getting the rising suspicion that the Thorian might know they're coming.

"Not just that, but Arcelia just tried to put a bullet in the back of my head, I had to knock her out! Fai Dan and the colonists are going wild and firing at us. We're vacating the premises and heading for the skyline. We'll-holy crap, what the hell is that!? Kaidan, twelve-" All Marcus could hear after that was static.

"Garrus! Garrus! Shit! Ashley, double time it! Get us to Juliana so we can get to Zhu's Hope! They just became top priority. I'll deal with Jeong later." Ashley simply responded with a nod, hitting the acelleration pedals and speeding off at high speed done the skyline. Within minutes they were back at the checkpoint and heading up the loading ramp when they heard the sounds of pistol fire.

"What was that?" Lizbeth asked from the back of the cabin.

"That sounded like it came from...," the gunfire continued, cutting Marcus off, "Shit, everybody out once we're up top! I think the Thorian's not the only one aware of what we've found out! If Jeong tries to kill you, kill him, understand?" Marcus barked, and everyone nodded as the Mako came to a stop outside the checkpoint room, and they hopped out, one behind, Lizbeth running ahead of them recklessly.

"Damn it Lizbeth, wait!" Marcus said at a whisper, but Lizbeth either didn't listen or couldn't, continuing her sprint into the room. Cursing under his breath, he ran into the room himself, witnessing the scene unfold. Jeong had his pistol up in the air, firing into the ceiling to intimidate the colonists as his ExoGeni bodyguards began to drag them into a corner. One particular one had Juliana in his grip, and Jeong was approaching steadily. Lizbeth's reaction was immediate.

"Get away from her, you son of a bitch!" the woman shouted, charging straight at Jeong. Jeong immediately raised his pistol but lowered it when Juliana broke her captor's grip and hugged her daughter tightly. Marcus continued to approach is weapon bared, while the rest of his team poured in.

"Found out, did you?" Jeong asked, the answer pretty obvious on both of their minds.

"What you did was monstrous, Jeong. All those people, just to study the Thorian?" Marcus shot back.

"Thorian? Monstrous? What's going on?" Juliana asked, breaking her daughter's embrace to watch the exchange. Lizbeth answered instead, her voice regretful and ashamed.

"ExoGeni was studying the people there. Allowing the colony to fall under the Thorian's thrall. As for the thorian itself, its an intelligent plant based lifeform living under Zhu's Hope, ExoGeni knew all along!" Lizbeth finished with hateful conviction. Juliana's voice and look were like daggers.

"You'll never get away with this, Jeong." Juliana stated angrily.

"So you keep saying, but noone's going to miss a few colonists." Jeong shot back, pistol at his side. Marcus had decidedly had enough, holstering his assault rifle and then pulling out his raikou. Slowly, but with conviction, Marcus raised it to aim at Jeong's head.

"No Jeong, that's where your wrong. You see, noone's going to miss you." With that, all they heard was a loud bang as Marcus pulled the trigger and the shot impacted Jeong's skull, sending a spray of blood out his sideways head wound and coating the ground in glistening red blood. Jeong's eyes became unfocused as his grip went numb and his pistol fell to the ground, the man's limp form falling to the ground, dead. His team looked on in shock, apart from Wrex, but noone looked as shocked as Tali, although noone could see it.

However, Tali could see the ExoGeni guards moving to respond, and she quickly whipped out her omnitool, Chiktika moving to hover beside her as she held it up threateningly. The rest of the team also raised weapons, as the colonists quickly took the guards by surprise and knocked them out.

"We've got enough problems without killing each other." Juliana said in exasperation. Marcus followed suit, his sigh full of the exasperation given as he holstered his pistol.

"That guy had committed an attrocity. He violated a human's most sacred right and conducted unethical experiments without hesitation. The bastard deserved it." Marcus said, and now Tali was truly scared. _He's never acted like this until now. Before he always gave the benefit of the doubt, now I just watched him kill a man in cold-blood, no matter how justified it is. _

"I guess your right. But what about the colonists? If this Thorian is controlling them, then we need to reach it and kill it." Juliana explained, her hand under her chin in a pensive posture.

"I don't want to harm the colonists unless they become too hostile to save. There has to be a way of getting around them and reaching that Thorian." Marcus suggested.

"Definitely out of the question, the Thorian will have the colonists protecting it from all sides. No way we'll get through except by going straight through them." Lizbeth countered, and they reentered their pensive position until Kaidan's voice entered his comm.

"Shepard! Please respond! We've just escaped Zhu's Hope and we're headed across the skyline, how copy?" The soldier's voice sounded hurried and rushed, as if he'd just won a marathon.

"Solid copy, Alenko. There is a small checkpoint like building across from Zhu's Hope, that's the RV point. We'll meet you there, Shepard out." With that, Marcus turned off his comms and was about to return to planning out the attack on the colony but Juliana's voice interrupted his musings.

"Wait...what if we rigged one of the grenades with a nerve agent?"

"Yes! If we rigged them with some kind of gas that isn't poisonous, you can use them to knock out the colonists without killing them. This should allow you to disable the colonists long enough for you to get in, destroy the Thorian and release them of its control!" Lizbeth followed up excitedly, a large smile on her face.

Marcus nodded and turned to Ashley, "Do we happen to have any gas grenades, Williams?"

"All I've got is tech and smoke grenades sir. Tali's got a few flashbangs, but that's the extent sir. Gas grenades haven't been implemented since the First Contact War, they said chemical warfare was too...unethical." Ashley finished with disdain she could barely hide, but Marcus let it slip, turning back to Juliana.

"Give us those tech grenades and I think our tech specialist here can rig them to release gas instead of explosive residue." Juliana said, and Ashley, Marcus and Wrex passed over their tech grenades to Lizbeth, and both of the women went over to a ExoGeni scientist who looked to be working deeply in something.

At that exact moment, he could hear familiar hurried breaths coming from outside, and turning, saw Garrus, followed by Kaidan, running into the room only to stop infront of Marcus.

"Are all you humans this slow?" Garrus teased, barely missing a breath.

"Not...all...of them. Some of us...are...pretty damn...fast." Kaidan responded, that able to hold his breathing as well as the turian.

"I need a sitrep. What exactly happened out there?" Marcus ordered and Garrus spoke up.

"Simple. We finished fighting off a wave of geth rocket troopers that this dropship had dropped off. Then Arcelia walked up behind me and said, 'We don't need your help anymore.' I'd heard that tone of voice before and knew what followed, so out of instinct, I spun around, grabbed her wrist and snapped it, and while she was in pain, me and Kaidan made our escape. Most of the colonists pursued us, but we simply ran. Do you know what's going on here, Shepard?"

"Certainly do. A creature named the Thorian, or Species 37 as ExoGeni calls it, lives under Zhu's Hope and has been for millions of years. It has mind-control capabilities that ExoGeni wanted to exploit for scientific gain so they used the colonists as test subjects. I guess when Arcelia tried to kill you, the Thorian must have figured out that we were on to it." Marcus finished explaining.

"And I guess he paid for it?" Kaidan pointed out, pointing at the dead form of the late Ethan Jeong.

"He did." Marcus said with a solemn tone, as if ashamed with his actions, but all melancholy was gone when Juliana returned with her daughter.

"It's done. Those grenades are triggered to release gas five seconds after the button is pressed. I recommend switching your olfactory filters to on so the gas doesn't affect you." Juliana informed the group, handing the grenades out to his team.

"Already done. We'll try and save as many colonists as possible, but this gas isn't limitless." Marcus explained, before moving towards the Mako, his team following.

"I know. But commander..." Juliana added, causing Marcus to stop and turn around.

"Please do everything you can to save Fai Dan. Please." Juliana continued, and he saw Lizbeth nod.

"Is he your brother?" Marcus asked. The woman simply shook her head.

"He's my husband." Juliana said with sheer helplessness, and he turned back to head up the ramp, the Mako waiting for them.

Marcus sighed as he entered the Mako and assumed the gunner's position. His drill instructor's words came back to him in an instant.

_No matter how hard you try, you ain't saints or superheros._

_There's no way you can save them all._

_Sometimes, sacrifices are nessacary for victory._

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_0820 hours._

_Northern Uplink, ExoGeni Special Access, Prothean Skyline, Feros. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko._

The drive felt longer than before. It felt like an eternity. Yet again, the absence of the geth forces was painfully evident by the fact that none of them came to oppose their return, none of them returned to give one last bout of defiance. They were simply not there, either in full retreat, or completely wiped out when the geth frigate was destroyed.

Either way it didn't matter, for the Thorian was a much more lethal threat.

Slowly, painfully, the Mako made its way down the northern uplink until it finally reached the doors to the Zhu's Hope settlement. Outside, he could see the forms of humans in a fetal positions.

"Careful people, we've got colonists outside, looks like they're waiting for us. Everybody out of the Mako, double time it. Prep weapons with stun rounds." Marcus ordered, unstrapping his gunnery harness and pulling out his shotgun, prepping it with stun rounds and hitting the panel to leap out of the hatch. He was soon followed by the rest of his team.

Ashley was preparing to leave the Mako when Marcus turned to face her.

"Williams, stay here and watch the Mako. Noone lays a finger on it, understood?" He barked.

Ashley looked less than pleased, but she saluted and followed his orders anyway, "Yes, skipper." With that, Ashley exited the Mako, but did not follow the team as they headed towards Zhu's Hope; and the fetal humans on the ground. As they approached they watched the forms begin to move, and Marcus motioned for his team to stop, moving forward, diamond back rifle in his firm grip.

It was only once he had closed the distance completely that he saw the inhumane color of the skin. The human was obviously not human anymore; it had no clothing, allowing its sickly lime skin to show clearly in the morning light. The non-human creature slowly rose up, its hands curved like talons, held out like it was some kind of zombie. When it turned around, Marcus felt bile build up in his throat. Where the human's eyes should have been were now gaping, black holes, with the beast's teeth gone and nose shaved off.

Whatever creature was looking into his eyes now wasn't human at all.

The unknown animal let out a guttural groan, followed by more as the door to the Zhu's Hope garage slid open and more of the creatures appeared. There was a massive horde.

"Dear god..." Kaidan exclaimed.

Marcus could hear the telltale sounds of someone preparing to vomit, and he immediately straffed to his left, just missing the fountain of acid vomit that flew past him to hit the ground. Without hesitation, he spun on the creature and brought his weapon to bare. If this was the colonist's fates, then there was no saving them. Flicking off the stun rounds, he pulled the trigger, feeling the weapon unleash round after round into it.

But that's just it, all the rounds hit, but did nothing. _Not enough firepower. _Before the creature could counterattack, Marcus wipped out his biotics and engulfed the animal in dark energy, barreling it off straight off the skyline and into the abyss below.

Whipping around, he barked at his squad to open fire, while at the same time he swapped his assault rifle for his shotgun, turning off the stun rounds and glowing in biotics once again as he unleashed a cascade of dark energy in a massive shockwave, the attack moving like a freight train as it blew a path of destruction until hitting the opposite wall.

Of course, all this did was wreck the cohesion of the horde, and they were soon getting up. Of course, Marcus had planned for this as he charged forward, followed by Tali and Wrex with their shotguns, guns blazing. Kaidan activated his tech armor and backed them up, a steady beat of staccato fire ripping into the beasts while Liara used her biotics to disuade them from moving forward. Garrus simply didn't know what to do with himself, resulting to peppering the enemy with concussive rounds.

The creatures had even changed blood color, with the liquid being the same sickly green as their repulsive exterior. Green blood stained his armor as he barrelled through the animals, just killing one that had attempted to spew its disgusting payload onto Tali's oblivious back.

By the time they had dealt with the massive horde of creatures, which had to have been at least a company size of them, he was caked to the kneecaps in green blood, as was Wrex. Tali's purple veil hadn't been saved from the ghastly substance either, the quarian looking like she had swapped it for a green one. And the color didn't suit her either.

"Keelah, this stuff is revolting. My suit is clogged with the stuff and it'll take a clean room for me to clean it all. Yuck!" Tali exclaimed, trying desperately to wipe the liquid off her hood, but only managed to cover her gloved hand in it, causing her to growl in frustration.

"Welcome to the green club. Oddly fitting seeing that my favourite color is green." Marcus stated.

"Really? Mine's purple, hence the veil." Tali responded.

"No, not really. I hate green actually. My favourite color's actually red and black." Marcus revealed, chuckling.

"Are you guys done chatting? Because we still have a colony of brainless zombies and more zombies that look human to deal with." Garrus deadpanned, walking past them and towards the elevator. Marcus simply continued to chuckle as he motioned for the squad to follow the turian, moving up towards the elevator that would take them back to the main colony.

"It's just through-" Garrus began, but was cut off as the elevator door opened.

"Us? I know right! Isn't it just thrilling!" Came the lead colonist as the door opened to reveal five of them, including the lead one who was named 'Ian Newstead' due to his nametag. The man was obviously insane and was holding what looked like a judgment pistol, while his fellow colonists were holding lancer assault rifles. Ian was visibly insane, not having the level of control the colonists possessed.

"Look, we only want to help you-" Marcus began.

"Help? Why help? Why not death? I'd rather you die! Much more fun! Requires less words and more bangs!" Ian practically jumped in anticipation, looking so excited that he could have probably snapped his arm in the way he was throwing it.

Slowly, he turned to Liara and whispered, "Prep a gas grenade. I'll stall him." Liara's nod was the only response he needed as he turned back to the increasingly hostile group of colonists.

"The Thorian has you under its thrall! You have no-" Marcus tried to say, but was interrupted once again.

"AND IT'S FANTASTIC! It says it'll let go of our minds if we kill you. Kill you we must! Only way to gain freedom! We must fight for it! FOR FREEDOM!" Ian shouted in a mock reenactment of Mel Gibson's act in the Brave Heart, which was still a popular movie in these times. He even chuckled.

"You think you're fighting for freedom?" Garrus asked.

"Pretty much," Ian responded deadpan, "Now enough talk! Let's-"

"Enough talk indeed. Do it Liara." Marcus ordered.

Before the gravity of the situation could fully register, the gas grenade was in the midst of their bulk and spread everywhere, causing the colonists to quickly fall to the ground unconscious like flies. Ian was the last to fall, still muttering words of defiance under his breath as he lost his battle to stay conscious and the team stepped into the elevator, hitting the button for the upper level. Zhu's Hope.

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_0838 hours._

_Skyline Main Entrance, Settlement Perimeter, Zhu's Hope, Feros._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Feros._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko._

It wasn't long before the two colonists succumbed to the gas and fell unconscious, followed by the destruction of four more of the repulsive creatures he had come to nickname 'creepers' from their creepy nature. He moved up the stairs, followed by his team, as he felt his sights lowering over every nook and cranny; practically scanning for any sign of a hostile presence. So far only two colonists had greeted them, and they had gone down before they could let off a shot, so he surmised that the rest were in Zhu's Hope itself.

He felt his comm crackle as he answered it, "Shepard" he said as quietly as possible, continuing to move at a steady pace up the stairs.

"Commander, finally, I thought I'd never get through this comm chatter. Thank god for this ship's VI interface. Right now we've got a horde of angry, pissed off looking colonists who look like their protesting against lunch time 're banging on the hull, firing at us...they're going completely crazy!" came Joker's voice.

"Copy that, we're entering the colony now. We've got a nerve agent ready for use against them. Right now I need you to get the Normandy away from this colony. There's a mind controlling hostile in this area and I don't want it corrupting the crew. Just go and we'll radio when the coast's clear!" Marcus shouted.

"Copy that, Normandy out." Joker stated, and the comms went silent as the group finally arrived back at the colony.

It was eerily silent; the only sound being that of running water and the steady, rthymic hum of the bunker's electronic generators. There wasn't a colonist in sight, not even the salarian from before was present. Multiple gunshots looked like they had gone off, but no blood was to be found.

He slowly and steadily edged inside the colony, making sure he didn't miss a single corner of the empty settlement before moving on. It was quiet, too quiet. Where were all the colonists? You would have thought they'd have left a few to protect the Thorian itself from suffering harm. Yet there was nothing. Just deadly silence.

That silence was finally pierced by the pounding thrum of the Normandy's engines as it the small alliance frigate flew over them at full speed, shooting into Feros' atmosphere. He was about to continue when he heard a familiar, feminine voice.

"Don't move any closer to the bunker unless you want her to die." Arcelia's voice was too recognizable to miss. He turned around, lowering his weapon as he saw Arcelia holding Liara around the throat in a headlock, a gun pointed at the asari's sidehead. Without missing a beat, Marcus reared his hand back and unleashed a biotic push, sending Arcelia hurling into a wall before falling back down. Then absolute chaos abrupted as colonists dropped out of hiding spots and attacked, gunfire streaking the area as creepers also joined the fray.

Arcelia was back up and had her rifle trained on Marcus, but his N7 reflexes easily kicked in faster. Arcelia's shots merely bounced off his kinetic barrier as he grabbed the lancer rifle from her hands biotically, using his powers to slam the weapon into her face, sending her crashing into a wall unconscious, her nose broken and bleeding intensely. Dropping the weapon she had been using from his biotic grip, Marcus spun around just in time to whack a charging colonist across the head with his shotgun butt. Looking down, he found it was the salarian.

Gunfire continued until the gas clouds erupted, the colonists standing no chance as they were overwhelmed by the green gas, allowing Marcus' team to focus on the creepers alone, which didn't last long under their sustained fire. Finally, as if after hours of fighting, the gas cloud cleared to show all the colonists in a long, hourly slumber, and all the creeper's just dead corpses on the ground.

"Shepard, I think I've found the entrance to the Thorian's lair." Kaidan called out, causing Marcus and team to arrive quickly at his position, the sentinel playing with the crane controls. Finally, the crane lifted the bunker off the ground and into the air, revealing the entrance to what looked like a holding pen. As they approached, a disgusting gurgling sound, much like the one creeper's made except much louder, boomed through the chamber.

Looking at his team with a questioning gaze, they all nodded, all wanting to follow Shepard into what could possibly be hell itself. Without a bit of hesitation, he walked into the dark chamber that was the Thorian's lair, a place covered in vines and aging stone walls that looked so incredibly ancient, they can't have possibly have been from this period. They looked like they were tens of thousands of years old.

_Old enough for a sentient plant to live in._

After minutes trying to navigate the maze of chambers they finally entered a spherical spire like structure, with levels going on downwards for a long while. The place was ripe for age, vines encased in a honeycomb network down the walls of the ancient structure. That wasn't the thing that gained his disgusted look; what was in the middle of the room did.

The Thorian.

"Keelah...what is that? Is that the Thorian?" Tali asked in both awe and disgust.

"We're definitely going to need a bigger gun." Garrus said dryly.

"This could get...problematic." Marcus issued, moving forward to address the creature. Immediately upon doing so, he could hear the creature begin to wreath its body, making squelching sounds that sounded like super glue being squeezed out of a tube. Finally, the tentacles that served as the beast's mouth erupted with green liquid, presumably saliva, and the form of a asari popped out, landing in a crouched position.

_That's just fucked up. First zombie minions, now it can vomit out asari? What the fuck kind of a plant is this?_

Before he could continue his musings, the crouched asari stood up, the pale light of the room revealing her features. Nothing was different about this asari apart from the fact that it was the same sickly green color of the Thorian instead of the asari's natural blue color. Add on that the asari looked pissed and you had the perfect angry minion.

"Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers praise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the old growth as I did with Saren, you are within and before the Thorian, it commands that you be in awe." The asari spoke, its tone zombie like and demanding.

"You gave something to Saren. Something we need." Kaidan answered first, Marcus crossing his arms.

"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone. It was the first time the old growth had listened to flesh since the old cycle. Trades were made. Then cold machines began killing the flesh would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given. The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies. It will listen no more." The asari stated once again in its demanding dialect.

From behind him, Marcus could hear the sound of a compacted pistol being released, and he spun around, shotgun raised to see Fai Dan, judgment pistol pointed at Marcus' head, walking into the chamber. The asari spoke once more.

"Kill the trespassers. Stop their transgression and protect the Old Growth as he bids it."

"The Thorian...wants me...to...kill you." Fai Dan tried to speak desperately, while also trying to lower his pistol, only to have it rise once again like his arms were on puppet strings. Fai Dan continued to edge closer against his will.

"But it can't make me. I won't do it. I can't..." Fai Dan said through gritted teeth, trying desperately to raise the pistol higher. But it wasn't to shoot Marcus...it was to shoot himself.

"Must...do this...I won't kill you..." Fai Dan continued, the pistol only at the side of his head. The asari let out a roar of vehemence while Marcus' pleading for Fai Dan to save himself went unheard by Fai Dan's booming scream.

"I WON'T!" With that, Fai Dan pulled the trigger and a spray of gore coated the walls as the round entered his skull and exited on the other side. Fai Dan's body went limp and fell to the ground; he was dead. Marcus cursed under his breath as he turned to the thorian in anger, the beast that had just forced Juliana's husband to kill himself so they might destroy the creature.

_His sacrifice won't be in vain, that's for sure._

"You've gone too far! I will destroy you!" Marcus boomed at the asari, raising his shotgun at the asari, followed by the rest of his team. Before he could pull the trigger however, he felt weight pressed against him and fell to the ground, shotgun sliding out of his reach as he tackled with a creeper. He tried desperately to roll it off him, but it was too late. The creepe reared up and let loose its payload, the acidic vomit spreading all over his armor plates. Marcus gritted his teeth and held in a scream of pain as the acid burnt through his armor and burnt the skin underneath. The medi-gel quickly moved in to seal the breach, but it didn't stop the immense pain.

Summoning what he could, he used his biotics to fling the thing off of him and into the ceiling, where, when it landed, the thing met Wrex's boot in the face, crushing its head. The krogan offered Marcus a hand up and retrieved his shotgun. Marcus turned to see that his squad were hunting down the tentacles that held the Thorian in place, while numerous creepers rushed to the defense of their creator.

"Come on Shepard, we've got a Thorian to kill." Wrex shouted over the sounds of the Thorian's agonized cries of pain when its tentacles were blown to pieces. Marcus nodded and ran despite the throbbing pain in his shoulder from the acid, but he kept going, hoping the medi-gel would do its job until he reached the Normandy.

The battle was long and extremely tedious, with creepers seemingly appearing out of nowhere to attack them. The asari that had been the messenger had been thrown into a wall by Wrex and her torso torn open by his shotgun, and the Thorian had eventually been completely cut off from the structure's walls. The creature let out a final scream of defiance before falling 60 stories into the abyss below, dead.

Upon destruction of their leader, the creepers simply exploded, green blood all that remained off the horrible abominations. Even the dead corpses simply melted into the ground. Marcus gave a sigh of relief upon their victory, but the sound of armored feet behind caused him to spin around once more. It was the asari from before, but she still had her natural blue skin tone instead of the green and she looked more confused than she did angry.

"Where...the Thorian...how am I alive? Is this really what human hell looks like?" The asari asked, visibly confused at her turn of events. Motioning for his squad to lower their weapons, he approached the troubled asari.

"No, your very much alive. The Thorian's prisoner, I'm guessing?" Marcus asked. The asari turned to look at him, and he could tell this one was military by her medium armor. From what Liara had told him, this one looked like an asari commando, some of the deadliest combatants in the known galaxy, especially since all asari were natural biotics.

"Yes...I...I...my name is...R'Ness...Shiala R'Ness. I once served as Matriarch Benezia's escort and one of her many followers. Then...then Saren sacrificed me to the Thorian so he could...could understand the cipher that the Thorian possessed. But you have destroyed the Thorian, the creature that had consumed me whole, and I'm grateful for that. I will answer what any questions you see fit to ask." Shiala answered.

"Well, Shiala, what exactly is the Cipher?" Marcus asked, soon followed by Liara, "And why is Benezia working for Saren?" the young asari asked, and Marcus nodded.

"The cipher cannot be defined, it simply exists. As for Benezia, it was not her will to join Saren, and neither was it ours." Shiala explained cryptically, leaving them very confused. Noticing their confused expressions, the commando took it upon herself to elaborate.

"The cipher isn't something tangible, it's knowledge itself. The knowledge of the protheans, in this case. Benezia was a strong willed individual, but Saren's influence is of a power I've never seen before. His power is...troubling. Benezia took us and attempted to make Saren see the error of his ways and stray off that path, but in the end Saren won us over...voices in our head told us it was the right thing to do. So here I was, Saren's errand-servant." Shiala said ashamedly, looking at the ground in solemnity.

"Wait...are you saying Saren can control minds? Like the Thorian can?" Marcus asked, terrified that Saren might possess such abilities and take control of his squad whenever they encountered the rogue turian spectre.

"It would appear so, although I don't believe Saren is behind it. I believe it's his flagship; a ship of immense power and size that it simply cannot have been developed by any of the known races. It's...unbelievably powerful and it makes the Destiny Ascension seem like a child's toy." Shiala explained.

"His flagship? Are you saying the geth flagship has the ability to control people's minds?" Kaidan asked rather skeptically.

"He calls it Sovereign. It's impossible to believe Saren himself is possible of mind control, which does leave his flagship. The geth appear to worship the vessel. It utilizes weapons that I've seen just absolutely annilhate everything in its path. I saw it take down a corvette before it could even retaliate. The geth ships simply circle around it, so I guess calling it the geth's flagship would be accurate, and it possesses weaponry far beyond any dreadnought. I believe you humans would call it a 'Super-dreadnought.' It's shields are something as well. It shrugs off MAC cannon attacks like their simply machine gun shots. I've even seen it simply ram through cruisers without sustaining damage of any kind! Its predicted size is something like two kilometers."

Marcus completey froze. Most of the asari's words were nothing but numb noise after she had said 'the geth worship it.' Everything became immediately clear. Everything was explained; the enigmatic design, the legs and how it appeared to stand, how the ship was able to land on the ground, the unbelievably powerful firepower and the inpenetrable shields. Only one race could have made such a ship...and that knowledge alone froze him to the core. He uttered the words before he knew what he was saying.

"Its a Reaper ship."

His entire team looked at him with raised eyebrows, most of the looks being terrified while Liara appeared shocked. Shiala wasn't surprised at all, which didn't surprise Marcus at all.

"Are you sure, Shepard?" Tali asked the human spectre, and he turned to the quarian, nodding as he did so.

"It all adds up. Remember how you said the geth worship the Reapers Tali? Shiala just said they worship Sovereign. The weaponry, the shielding, the technology the ship uses is just beyond the capabilities of any of the races, even the asari and geth. It's a Reaper vessel, I'm certain of it, and if Saren has it under his control, then it might be the key he needs to look for the Conduit. For all we know, this conduit could be the one way for the reapers to return. Now we REALLY need to stop Saren. If that thing really can plow through even cruisers without so much as twitching, then the galaxy is severe danger."

"Someone like to fill me in? What in the goddess' name is a Reaper?" Liara asked, and suddenly Marcus remembered that he hadn't filled the asari in. Tali answered him instead.

"They're a hyper-advanced machine race that existed, as far as we know, fifty thousand years ago and were the ones responsible for wiping out the protheans and wiping all evidence out. We believe that Saren is trying to bring the Reapers back so they'll cleanse the galaxy of all life again," Tali finished and added her own opinion, "It could be that the Reapers were the Prothean's versions of my people's geth and the Protheans were simply not given the mercy of being exiled from their world and were wiped out when the Reapers rebelled."

"By the goddess...all my life I've never dreamed of...then that must mean the Reapers are responsible for the cycle." Liara exclaimed, and the team turned to look at her with a odd expression on their faces. Liara noticed this and continued, "The Protheans weren't the first to mysteriously vanish. Their were many other civilizations that disappeared long before them, all of them advancing off the technology off the race that died before them. In our case, we evolved off the technology left by the Protheans. Everytime, close to no trace has been left of that race's existence. This cycle has repeated itself for billions of years, and the extinctions always take place fifty thousand years inbetween each other."

"So your saying that every fifty thousand years, the Reapers enter the galaxy, wipe out all life, no evidence of their presence, and then vanish only to rinse and repeat? But why? What's the logic behind it?" Kaidan asked.

"Does it matter why the enemy wants to kill us? Like Admiral Kumbari said at the battle of Shanxi, 'Don't question the enemy's reasons for killing you, question their way of killing you.' If th Reapers want us gone, then we'll show them that they messed with the wrong cycle. But I need this cipher. Its obvious Saren needed it for something, so that means we must have it." Marcus stated firmly, turning back to Shiala who had remained silent throughout the banter, finally speaking now that she felt the conversation draw back to herself.

"Yes, the cipher I gave to Saren is the knowledge of the Protheans; the way they think, speak and trade information. The Protheans possessed abilities akin to my people's mind-melding, and traded personal information between each other through the beacons, kind've what we call comm buoys but more advanced. When the protheans were killed by the Reapers here, the Thorian absorbed their dead bodies and in doing so, gave birth to the cipher in its brain, the knowledge of the Protheans. Not only will you understand their language, but you will have their memories as well."

"I can't see how that aids Saren in any way shape or form. The Reapers wiped out the Protheans. How can the knowledge of a dead race help you bring back a race still alive?" Marcus asked.

"Because the Protheans knew where the Conduit was, and with that information Saren has, he now knows as well. With the Thorian dead, the cipher died with it. I'm sorry." Shiala said apologetically, Marcus cursing under his breath. Then Shiala seemed to light up with an epiphany.

"Wait, there may be one way. I still have the cipher locked in my mind. If I mind-meld with you, I may be able to transfer the cipher into your mind. It will be a short process, but I can't guarantee it will be painless." Shiala explained, but Marcus simply nodded.

"If this cipher helps me find the Conduit before Saren and understand this damn vision, then it's something that needs to be done." Marcus stated.

"Vision?" Shiala asked as he rose her hands to touch the side of Marcus' face.

"I got it from the beacon. Its a vision that details somekind of reaper attack, although I'm not quite sure what it all means." Marcus explained, and he saw Shiala nod before they continued, "Close your eyes...?"

"Shepard. Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy, Human Spectre." Marcus stated.

"Close your eyes, Commander. Let go of your physical shell, the shell that makes you individual," Shiala asked, and Marcus obligded, his eyes closing until darkness enveloped his vision; all he could hear was Shiala's voice, "Reach out to grasp the threads that bind us, one to another."

"Every action sends ripples across the galaxy, every idea must touch another's mind to live. Each emotion must mark another's spirit. We are all connected; every organic being united in a single, glorious existence. Open yourself to the universe, Commander. EMBRACE ETERNITY!" Shiala's were a pure, night black as she entered his mind.

The visions came flooding back. The agonized screaming, the sound of children crying as entire cities burned around them. Blood soaked visions of entire burning worlds erupted in his mind, coupled with the sound of synthetic horns. He could see the fleeing shadows as the the reaper fleets lay waste to their planet. He watched as the screaming continued, the vision travelling through entire systems, giving witness to the utter destruction of the galaxy.

Then it did it. The vision reared behind a dark moon as the sun glared down upon it, and he soon found himself staring at the wreathing form of the geth flagship; Sovereign.

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING. **

His eyes shot open just in time to see Shiala's eyes return to normal and the asari released her grip, staggering backwards in shock, looking at Marcus as if he was some kind of monster. His acidic burn on his right shoulder also took the stage and began shooting a blinding pain up his forearm. Marcus only just managed to ignore the feeling.

"May the goddess have mercy on your mind, Commander Shepard. The things you have seen are truly horrifying. Unfortunately the vision was incomplete, you're missing a key component. You need to find a second beacon and link with it to complete the vision and understand it. Somewhere in that vision contains the exact location of the Conduit. You just need to complete it, which is what I think Saren is trying to achieve." Shiala explained.

"Then we won't let him. We'll stop him." Marcus said with a determined tone.

"I wish you luck. Do not try and save Benezia, she's too far gone. I was only released of Sovereign's influence due to the Thorian, something about its mind-control abilities overriding Sovereign's control. But Sovereign has complete control over Saren, and I fear Benezia maybe as well. Once under Sovereign's control, there is no saving them. The only relief from the control is...death." Shiala said with sorrow.

"No! I refuse to believe that! My mother can still be saved, I know she can!" Liara stated with clear defiance before storming off, probably going to check on the colonists who would probably be very confused. Marcus remembered that he also had to inform a certain now-widow of her husband's death. He was turning to leave when Wrex spoke up.

"What about the asari? She worked for Saren and as far as I'm concerned, she's an enemy. We should just kill her where she stands." The krogan announced.

Shiala seemed unfazed by the krogan's threats, "If you would allow it I'd like to stay here. I have caused these colonist's great suffering while under Sovereign's influence. I'd like to make amends. However, if you so wish it, then kill me. I will not resist. As I said, I've caused great suffering, and if my death is required to amend that, then so be it."

Marcus didn't even hesitate in his decision, "No, we won't kill you. If you wish to help repair this colony then by all means, do so. I won't stop you." With that, he ordered his team to lower their weapons and moved out of the holding pen, Shiala close behind. Marcus sighed as he radioed the Normandy to redock, assuring Joker that the Thorian was indeed dead.

He looked at the ground almost the entire time, and he took to talking with Tali to set his mind at rest.

It should have felt like a victory.

All he felt was defeat.

**"I still don't understand. Where does it mention that something significant happens between Tali and Shepard?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"I see the standard for patient interrogators is running dangerous low these days. I'm getting to it, although I think the proper term would be a 'love triangle' rather than just Tali and Shepard at this stage. Liara, Tali and Shepard."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"So who won out in the end? Obviously Tali did, but at what was the turning point?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"The heart was the turning point."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**MEKA'LISH: BROTHER OF DIFFERENT KINSHIP/SPECIES. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER.' KHELISH. **

**BOSH'TET: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.**

**KEELAH SE'LAI: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.**

**UHRARNIZ: PIECE OF EXCREMENT. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT.' KHELISH.**

**REIST: BAG OF WASTE. IT HAS NO PROPER MEANING IN THE HUMAN ENGLISH VOCAB, BUT CAN OFTEN BE TRANSLATED AS 'FUCK' OR 'SHIT'. KHELISH.**

**WUMBRI: A DEXTRO ANIMAL NATIVE TO RANNOCH. SIMILIAR TO AN EARTH RHINOCEROS. KHELISH.**

**IKILISH'VARSI: UNKNOWN. DATA CORRUPTED. KHELISH. **

**I'NASH'TOLO'PAH: UNKNOWN. DATA CORRUPTED. KHELISH.**

**AILIST'KIL'TRA'GRO: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.**

**U'LAI: MALE GENITALIA. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'DICK'. KHELISH.**

**GETH: SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE. KHELISH.**

**YEESHRA: THE QUARIAN AFTERLIFE FOR ALL SINNERS. IN HUMAN TERMS IT MEANS 'HELL.' KHELISH.**

**YOL'TIYA: UNKNOWN. DATA UNAVAILABLE. KHELISH.**


	15. Chapter 12 Visions and Love Triangles

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

**VISIONS AND AWKWARD LOVE TRIANGLES**

_June 20, 2183_

_0852 hours. _

_Main Bunker, Settlement Center, Zhu's Hope, Feros._

_Eden Prime War, Post-Battle. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. _

Marcus sighed heavily as the last piece of the main bunker was moved back into place; forever, or at least for a long period of time, sealing off the Holding Pen that had once held the late Thorian. Looking around he found numerous colonists in multiple states of confusion, pain and depression. Obviously the thorian's mind control hadn't had any lingering effects, and had worn off upon the feral creature's death.

Arcelia had woken up with a severe migraine and a large bump on her forehead to show for it, but upon Marcus' attempts to apologize, the human officer had simply shook him off, saying that 'she probably deserved it' and even complimented him for his well done job. The glaring sun of Theseus bore down on him and the burning sensation he had felt in his acidic burns had fallen away, but he was certain they would return.

The whole colony was a wreck, and it was pretty clear that it would take every resource ExoGeni and the colonists had to get it back to its previous state, but they could do it. ExoGeni Headquarters had been damaged beyond repair and would require complete retrofit, but apparently most of the ExoGeni employees on the colony were leaving so they had gone with the decision to simply leave the building as a memorial to Feros' defiance of a geth invasion. A testament to their suffering at the hands of the machines.

He had contacted the Alliance, and a man by the name of Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett of the Fifth Fleet had dispatched a small task force of two frigates to the colony to help with recolonization and restoration efforts. Hackett had thanked him for his assistance and even passed on a large budget of credits, along with a tip about heavy geth activity in the armstrong cluster that he wished for the Normandy to investigate.

Now came the hardest thing in his life. Hardest thing except...he shook those thoughts away. He didn't need those thoughts coming back to affect him.

He was going to have to inform a widow of her husband's death. That was possibly the hardest thing he'd have to do in his life. For a long while he had talked to Tali and complimented her on her abilities during the mission, even getting a few bits of humor out of it when he had to help the quarian get rid of the green goo that still coated her skin-tight suit. The conversation was forcefully ended when Marcus asked her to help the others check on the colonists so he could talk to Juliana, and since then they had gone seperate ways, Marcus heading for Juliana's spot just near the salarian's shop.

"Ah, LC. I was just telling Mrs. Baynham of how much of a fighter you are. She was impressed by your ability to fight the geth." Liara explained, who appeared to be talking with Juliana and Lizbeth, both laughing and chuckling. Liara's smile dropped at Marcus' solemn tone.

"Not good enough. Mrs. Baynham, I have some horrific news to inform you of." Marcus began and he noticed Juliana's features crease into one of worry, with Lizbeth grabbing ahold of her mother's arm as if a young child looking for salvation from a horrible monster.

He gave a defeated sigh, "I'm terribly sorry to be the one to tell you of this, but I was unable to save your husband. Fai Dan killed himself in favor of not following the Thorian's commands. He gave his life so we could continue to destroy the Thorian. I cannot begin to know how you feel." Marcus said as convincingly as possible, but even his voice wavered. It had always been hard telling someone that their loved ones were dead, especially since he had done it before when he told Roshia's parents about the young girl's fate...

He saw tears streak down Juliana's cheek, but Lizbeth just went all out, crying into her mum's shoulder.

"I...I didn't think it'd end...quite...like this. I ca-I can't believe he's actually gone." Juliana send in melancholic tone, her arm moving around to pull Lizbeth closer, allowing the younger woman to freely cry into her arm. Marcus sighed heavily as he turned to leave, but Juliana's voice caused him to turn back to her.

"We still appreciate what you've done here, Commander. Fai Dan will be given a proper burial, and the colony renamed 'Dan's Hope' in his honor. You've done a great thing here, I hope we meet again." Juliana thanked the spectre. Marcu simply gave a tired and forced smile.

"I didn't do anything extravagant ma'am, all I did was my job." Marcus stated deadpan, and moved to leave, Liara close and in tow. The day's events had really worn out the spectre. He had fought against a battalion sized amount of geth troops, a horde of creepy abominations, paranoid colonists and to top it off; had destroyed a crazy, million year old, transentient plant lifeform that had mind-controlling abilities. His day had been pretty fucked up by normal standards. By Marcus' standards it had been all in a day's work for him.

What took him by surprise was what happened next. He had been walking through the corridor of the old bunker to the docking bay so he could recall the crew, board the Normandy and go to the Citadel for some purchases and short-term R n R, nothing on the scale of full shore leave, but it was at least something. It wasn't long before he felt Liara's hand on his shoulder and he turned around only to be embraced by a couple of pounds worth of asari.

When the asari had finally let him go, he stood looking very shocked and confused. The asari simply laughed and a bluish tinge hit her cheeks, blood rushing up to her cheeks.

"Sorry, I've just been wanting to do that for awhile. All the things you've done for these people, it has been very kind. I just wanted to express my...feelings about that." The naive scientist stated, looking very embarassed by what she did. Marcus simply chuckled, crossing his arms.

"And you saw fit to hug your superior officer? Careful Liara, there are rules about that in the Alliance..." Marcus trailed off.

"Yes, I've read some of those rules. I believe some of them involve 'no multiracial squads', so I guess you've broken a few yourself." Liara stated dryly.

"So it would seem I've been contradicted by an asari scientist with an unparrelled fascination in prothean tech. Now I've seen everything. Come on Miss Know-It-All, the Normandy awaits its crew and a chance to send a javelin-torpedo up Sovereign's ass." Marcus declared, continuing down the corridor, passing the colonist he had encountered on his first time here, who nodded as they moved past.

"Miss Know-It-All? That the best you could come up with?" Liara teased.

"I do try, but sometimes I'd rather stick to shooting things than trying to make jokes. And please don't even mention how I dance, I've already had Anderson give me shit for that." Marcus admitted, moving into the docking bay.

"How you dance? Lieutenant Commander Shepard, are you telling me you can't dance?" Liara asked with slight amusement in her voice.

"You want the whole story? How about...no. What I can tell you though, is that if we found out the Reapers could only be defeated by wonderful dancing and they asked me to do it, we'd be pretty much screwed." Marcus explained in a slightly embarassed tone as they finally moved out into the docking bay.

"Oh, well that sucks. I was thinking of going to Flux when we got to the Citadel and I had been wondering if you wanted to...well, dance with me." Liara asked while slightly playing with her hands.

"Well, I know I can't dance if my body was strapped with explosives and set to detonate upon the first flaw, but I can at least try. So don't get all mopey on me. I've got some fight in me yet, I just need some practise."

"Well, something's do change." Liara responded, both of them laughing hard as they entered the Normandy's airlock and waited for the sequence to finish. The day had certainly been daunting and pressuring, and Liara's sense of humor had certainly lifted the mood, if only a little. After their RnR on the Citadel they would be back at it, probably hitting the geth forces Hackett mentioned in the armstrong cluster. But for now, they could at least relax. The pain was returning to, agonizingly reminding him of his wound.

From little over a couple of meters away, a single, young and naive quarian girl stood, her eyes watering in reaction to what she just saw. Turning back and sliding onto the ground, she sighed heavily and let her hands cradle her helmet. She had seen the whole thing; from the confession, to the embrace and to the airlock.

_See you foolish bosh'tet? How could you believe he'd ever want you? Maybe Kaidan heard wrong...or maybe Shepard got tired of waiting for you to finally admit your feelings. You were too slow girl, and you paid for it._

All Tali could muster was a short gurgle of mucus in her throat before she broke down into a fit of crying.

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_0852 hours. _

_Docking Bay, Port Hanshan, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Matriarch Benezia M'Soni, Major Herau I'Loak._

Benezia stood up immediately upon feeling the shuttle land. Only after some reluctance from the Hanshan authorities and some intimidation on her part, had they been allowed to land. When people said Noveria was the mos paranoidly protective multiracial colony in the galaxy they certainly weren't joking. When the matriarch stood out, she felt an immediate cold wash over her, causing the asari to shiver.

Noveria could be typically assiociated with a freezer; the entire planet suffered from snowstorms, freezing cold tempertures and many people had died trying to traverse its landscape. It was sort've like Earth's Antartican continent, just with less ice and more solid snow mountains. Port Hanshan was one of few colonies set up over the planet that actually had the facilities to house people from the cold; others weren't as successful.

But there was something else about Noveria that made it even colder; the corporations. Noveria wasn't a typical colony, this colony was where corporations could go to conduct illegal research. All the dirty companies; ExoGeni, Synthetic Insights, Binary Helix, all of them had some form of illegal tech they weren't lawfully allowed to use. Synthetic Insights specialized in AI, which had been banned by the Citadel conventions post-Morning War due to the geth rebellion three hundred years ago.

But she wasn't interested in AI; she was interested in a much more deadly secret, one that one of Saren's sponsors, Binary Helix, had. Benezia began to lead her team of asari commandos down the docking bay and towards the security entrance, noting the features of the docking bay as she went. It was huge, able to fit probably four alliance frigates, while the interior was noticably cyan grey due to the amount of snow impacting it for the years.

It wasn't long before she finally reached security and was confronted by a team of Elanus Risk Control Services, aka ERCS, guards who appeared to be Port Hanshan's security. Benezia continued moving, despite the assault rifles pointed at her by the multiple humans and turians, and stopped in who appeared to be the commanding officer of the group.

"I am Matriarch Benezia, secretary to Spectre Saren Arterius. I require access to Peak 15. I am a sponsor of Binary Helix and require immediate access to the facility." Benezia demanded, leaving the CO who was a human female and by nametag called 'Captain Maeko Matsuo.' The human nodded and motioned for her guards to stand down, including a reluctant 'Sergeant Kaira Stirling' who was also a human female.

"We don't like spectres, but if he's sponsoring Binary Helix, then by all means. Be careful though, we lost contact with Peak 15 a while ago and haven't heard a beep from it since. It could be the snowstorm blocking our communications, a faulty transmitter, we don't know. You'll need a garage pass from Administrator Anoleis as well if you wish to gain access to the Aleusk Valley. Garage cannot be used without clearence due to the storm at the moment. Safety concerns." With that, Matsuo simply motioned for her guards to return to positions, lowering their weapons and allowing Benezia and her commandos through.

_That was easy enough. Now just to get that garage pass..._

"Excuse me, are you Matriarch Benezia?" came a female voice from ahead of her, and the asari let out a sigh of exasperation as she looked towards the source. A short woman in a sparkling red dress and looked to be in her human forties approached them, her posture quite authoritive despite her frame.

"I am Matriarch Benezia." Benezia confirmed for the woman, who nodded and reached out a hand towards the asari, which she curtly ignored. The woman simply shook her head in a 'suit yourself' sort of fashion and withdrew her hand.

"I am Gianna Parasini, I'm the assistant for Administrator Anoleis. He would like to see you immediately." The named Gianna informed and Benezia simply nodded, allowing the human to lead her down the stairs and towards Anoleis' office. The weapon detectors had gone eratic, but after some reassurance from Parasini, the ERCS guards had let her commandos and herself into the port, followed by their secret cargo.

Benezia smiled mentally as well as physically and her self-proclamated victory and continued down into the Port. When it was finally time to talk to Anoleis, which was pretty sure she had this in the bag as the human saying went.

_Now let's find out why Peak 15 went dark..._

**{Loading...}**

_June 20, 2183_

_0921 hours._

_Medical Bay, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Chief Medical Officer Karin Chakwas._

Marcus had to fight to hold in a gasp of pain as Chakwas once again applied more of the orange substance, the soothing liquid immediately overriding his pain and allowing his shoulder muscles to relax. Apparently the wound he had sustained from the creeper hadn't been as bad as he originally thought, and the wound would apparently heal by the time they reached the Citadel in three more days. Now all he had to do was lie on the medical bed while the good doctor applied more medi-gel to his wound.

"You're extremely lucky Commander. That acid could have impacted your chest and caused much more damage then you've got now. Just give it a little more time and it should heal quite nicely." Chakwas finished, allowing Marcus to sit up and test his shoulder. As far as wounds went, this one now only offered a dull ache instead of the searing pain he had come to expect.

"Thanks doc, I'll promise not to piss off too many krogan as possible." Marcus declared, standing at the side of his bed.

"I can't hold you to that until you actually follow one of my orders." Chakwas admitted, and upon seeing Marcus' raised eyebrow, she snorted and rolled her eyes, "Don't give me that look, according to your record, your as stubborn as a trunk when it comes to accepting medical attention. Most of them had to abuse their authority to make you accept meds."

"Yeah, and during those times I had enemies to fight, no time for sitting around and having medi-gel slapped on my shoulder for an hour." Marcus retorted with mock offense.

"If only you did. It might save your life at one point." Chakwas stated dryly, her omnitool still out as she returned to her desk in the corner of the bay. Marcus' eyes followed her, as if waiting for her to say something, but out of his peripheral vision he could see Frederics lying down two beds away from him, the officer smiling at him.

"Why are you here, Frederics?" Marcus asked.

"Strong allergic reaction. That quarian walked past me with all that green goo and well...I didn't react well to it. You better check on her to, sir, she seemed really upset about something." Fred explained, before turning back to the ceiling. Marcus frowned at that; Tali had been fine before, but maybe it was the colonist's treatment that upset her. Either way, he'd soon find out as he was calling a meeting in the debriefing room.

He turned and left the med bay, speaking as he headed towards the stairs to the CIC deck.

"Joker, call a meeting in the debriefing room. I've got some changes to make." Joker didn't even respond as he went about his task. During the mission, Marcus had faced many dilemmas and one of them involved identification. Communication between his squad was slow at best, but he was sure that simple 'nicknames' or 'codenames' would fix this. Allow him to identify, communicate and acknowledge his squad members with rapid efficiency.

It wasn't long before he found himself back in the Debriefing room, his squadmates pouring into the room and taking seats at their usual positions. Fred had been right about Tali; her shoulders had bee shaking and it looked as she was visibly agitated about something. Strangely enough, Tali seemed to flinch at the mere presence of Liara, which caused some rousing suspicion that Liara was causing trouble for the young quarian. He'd have to ask about that later.

Clearing his throat, Marcus stood up and approached the middle of the room.

"As you all know, we're heading to the Citadel. I think it's time for some Rest and Relaxation for us. Your combat tolerance on Feros was admirable, and most of those who are young and mostly never seen combat kept their cool despite the hectic fighting. You all deserve some rest, especially since we'll be investigating geth activity in the Armstrong cluster shortly after. So be prepared for some rest, you've all earned it."

Everyone gave a nod of approval, Wrex seeming a little bit disappointed by the aspect of 'no enemies' while everyone else seemed thrilled, except Garrus, but the turian seemed to manage looking 'unthrilled' all too well.

"However, that is not the main reason I called this meeting. I've come to discuss group cohesion. The battle of Feros was hectic for one reason; not just the insane amount of geth troops or the crazy, mind-controlling plant of wisdom, but our communication. It is slow at best, and I think we need to upgrade that alittle. By alittle, I'm suggesting codenames. Besides, this way we can keep our real names a secret incase the enemy infiltrate our communications." Marcus informed them, and Ashley let out a irritated moan while Kaidan seemed pretty excited. Noone else gave a crap or didn't understand.

Smiling, he threw his arms up in a pose of 'so, let's start with me!' The words never left his mouth as Kaidan spat out the first word.

"How about...jesus?" Kaidan asked.

"Are you serious, Kaidan? I'm jewish, remember?" Marcus asked, "Doesn't make sense to be named after a Christian religious figure."

"Uh...how about...Moses? No, I know! Leonidas!" Ashley practically yelled.

"Nah, I...wait, Leonidas? That actually sounds good. Leonidas it is, then." Marcus declared.

"Leonidas?" Garrus asked and Kaidan had to explain it to the turian.

"He was a human warrior veteran that lived close to a thousand years ago in a city state called Sparta. He was a powerful king and never backed down from a fight. He was the ultimate leader. Only seemed fitting."

"So, Kaidan...how about it? Does Sentinel sound good to you?" Marcus asked.

"Actually, it does. I think I'll stick with Sentinel, Leonidas." Kaidan responded with a lopsided grin.

"Hey! Don't start on me yet! It's just Shepard when we aren't on the ground." Marcus demanded mockingly and turned to Ashley who seemed to have a exasperated expression on her face.

"Please, skipper..." Ashley pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears.

"I know what to call you. How does Delta sound?" Marcus asked and Ashley was about to protest when she suddenly stopped, looking at him with a mixed expression.

"Delta? That actually...sounds...good." Ashley declared, a large smile on her face as she contemplated this new codename and Marcus turned to Wrex to give the soldier time to taste her new name.

"Come on, Wrex isn't good enough for ya?" Wrex asked with mock frustration, allowing Marcus to simply stand there. It was clear Marcus would have to come up with one for him. It took him close to five minutes, but the spectre had one pretty much planned out easily.

"I know! How does Scarab sound to you?"

"Scarab? Sounds powerful. I like it. It sounds good coming from my mouth. I shall be called Scarab on the battlefield." Wrex declared, pounding his fist on his chestplate and Marcus, glad to have declared something a success once again, moved on to Liara. The asari seemed ready to accept whatever codename he saw fit, as she wasn't offering any input.

"Liara...Seeker?" Marcus asked.

"Seeker. I seek knowledge on the protheans and what their true fate was. I actually like it, I think I'll keep it. Seeker it is." Liara stated. Marcus nodded and moved on to Garrus.

"Raptor. I had it planned out already and after researching human animals I think it fits me just fine." Garrus declared and Marcus didn't bother with the turian, simply stopping at Tali.

"What do you want to be called, Tali?" Marcus asked. The quarian remained silent, staring at the floor endlessly while seeming to be pensive. Marcus examined the girl; she was kind, sweet and selfless, all the qualities of one of the most abundant personality. She was a force to be reckoned with when facing geth and wouldn't hesitate in protecting her comrades. She was loyal and intelligent and she certainly had the voice of a...

"Angel." Marcus muttered. Of course. Tali had all the qualities of an angel; strength, determination, protectiveness, selflessness, kindness and of course fierce in the face of an enemy. It was the perfect codename.

Tali finally seemed to notice Marcus, looking up at him, her glowing beacons that represented her eyes looking into his, and he swore he could see melancholy in them.

"What?" the quarian asked, her voice wavering and visibly saddened by something.

"Angel. We'll call you Angel." Marcus declared, nodding at his team as he moved back into the center of the room. "This meeting is concluded, I hope to meet you all in Flux the day we arrive. Crew dismissed." Marcus ordered, and his team began to file out one by one. Before she could leave however, he motioned for Tali to stay behind and the quarian did as told, but didn't turn to face Marcus as he stood up to approach her.

"Tali, you seem abit...restless and Fred mentioned you were upset. Is there something...wrong?" Marcus asked.

Tali just wanted to spin around and unleash all her rage upon the man for causing her to feel this way. All she wanted to do was to empty a shotgun slug into Liara. But she couldn't because she knew Liara was the better choice for Shepard. She had been foolish to think that she could give him what he wanted; a girl to love, who's face he can see and who's skin he can touch. He couldn't do any of that with Shepard, but Liara could do all of that for him. No, she would be his friend. And she wouldn't tell him what had really happened.

Turning towards the spectre, she shook her head, "It's nothing. I was just thinking about...it was nothing. Really." Tali assured the spectre, and he seemed to accept that, but instead moving onto a topic she definitely didn't want to venture off to.

"I need to talk to you about what happened before Feros. About what I..." Marcus began but was immediately cut off by the quarian.

"I can't, Shepard. I'm sorry, but I think we should just forget about that all together. I'm needed in engineering. Have fun with...Liara." Tali said the last bit with barely contained melancholy and she mentally kicked herself for being so selfish. Without a second glance at the human spectre, the quarian turned and left, leaving a very confused commander.

_It's like I said before, I've definitely creeped her out. And what did she mean by 'have fun with Liara?' _

**{Loading...}**

_June 23, 2183_

_1312 hours._

_Hellion Plaza, Flux, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko._

"So the next thing I know I'm up against the door jam and my father is yelling at me, telling me 'don't you ever do that again or I'll shove this pole up your ass!' Scary back then, but as I grew up I treasured it as the funniest thing that had ever happened to me." Garrus finished his story with a turian chuckle, followed by Shepard's and Kaidan's.

Despite Shepard's good intentions, Adams had informed Shepard that Tali had only left the ship to pick up supplies and would return immediately, stating she had work to do. Being a quarian Shepard couldn't blame her for her behaviour, and let her be even though it annoyed him that Tali was out having fun with them. Liara had taken to dancing on the dance floor while Wrex had wandered off to look for modifications for his Solokov. Ashley had simply decided to go and enjoy the sights of the Citadel Hellion Plaza.

What had originally been a conversation soley focused on mocking Liara's dancing and the latest revelation that Shepard couldn't dance, had quickly turned onto personal stories, in which the team had started off with Garrus. They had learned that Garrus had a sister named Solona who had grown up being a best friend for Garrus until he attended school. His father had apparently been a hardcore C-Sec veteran, and Garrus had detailed how his father was furious about his resignation and even denied him the ability to become a spectre at one point.

Kaidan hadn't really mentioned much about this life apart from the fact that he had been kidnapped by the Conatix corporation to work in BAat as a biotic. Apparently he had fallen in love with one of the girls there, a young woman named Rahna, and even came to her aid when their teacher, a turian named Vyrunnus had punished the girl for reaching out to grab a cup of water physically instead of biotically, resulting in the turian's death. Rahna had become scared of Kaidan and when Conatix was shutdown they went seperate ways and he joined the Alliance.

There wasn't much to Marcus. He had grown up on spaceships, travelling inbetween different postings with his parents, eventually coming to rest on the Einstein with his mum after his father was killed in the First Contact War during heavy fighting on Shanxi; humanity's last bastion during the war. He knew his way around and even told of his supposed last stand on Elysium, which ended with him fully halting a ten thousand strong batarian army. He had left out the bit about Torfan. His friends didn't need to know about that.

Apart from sad stories from the past, the RnR session was going really well. Joker had stated he couldn't come due to his brittle bone disease called Vrolik's syndrome. Adams had decided to stay so he could help Tali, while Doctor Chakwas had gone to talk with doctor Michel. Fred had gone to collect extra munitions so they could stock up and Pressly had gone to the Presidium to watch the peaceful scenery while he read a book. The only bit of solace the old man had to cling on to.

Quickly and quietly, Marcus took a sip of his drink before slamming it back into the table rather loudly, causing Garrus and Kaidan to give him odd looks, but he waved them off and they went back to watching the dance floor.

"Liara sure can dance. Not surprising for an asari, but still." Garrus admitted.

"Yeah, she looks water flowing on a river. So smooth and she looks like a natural." Kaidan stated but then his look dived down on Marcus, smiling as he did. He already knew that Liara wasn't who Marcus had his attention drawn to. Garrus however, seemed completely oblivious as he turned to Marcus.

"You got your eyes on our Prothean researcher, eh Shepard?" Garrus asked, causing Marcus to drop out of his reverie of the events before.

"Yes, but not in the sense your thinking of Garrus. I've got one woman on my mind, and it isn't Liara. I'm not saying she's not beautiful, hell, she's pretty gorgeous, but she's not want I want...what I need." Marcus declared before taking another swig of his drink, "But it doesn't matter. We're here to enjoy ourselves, not dwell on things. A toast to the weirdest team ever assembled!" Marcus shouted, and the trio raised their glasses to clang together, before all of them downed their drinks whole.

"Keelah Se'lai to that." Came a familiar, relaxing tone.

Marcus' focus snapped towards the origin of the voice and saw Tali coming to take a seat next to Garrus and Kaidan, obviously trying to keep her distance from Marcus. Marcus sighed and got up, moving towards the counter for more drinks.

"What do you want Tali?" Marcus asked the quarian. Her answer was immediate.

"I've got water, I'll be fine, thank you anyway." Tali thanked curtly, pulling out a tube of what looked to be water and inserting it into the slot in her vocalizer.

Nodding, Marcus reached the counter and bought three more drinks; another dextro and two levos. Once he was back at the table, he turned to Tali.

"So, what happened to 'I've got work to do?' I thought you hated us big idiots." Marcus asked. Tali sighed behind her mask before leaning forward.

"Adams saw fit to order me out of his engine room and told me not to come back until I had some fun with you guys. I know he has good intentions, but I want to work. It's the only form of solace I can find." The quarian admitted.

"Alittle fun with your crew can't hurt. Besides, its only for a day before we're back to full combat readiness and heading out to save the galaxy again." Marcus made sure to emphasize 'readiness' before taking another sip of his drink, and Tali simply gave an exasperated sigh before finally emptying the tube of water she had in her vocalizer, sealing the section off before slipping the tube into a pocket on her suit.

"Now, does anyone want-" Before Marcus could finish mouthing the question, a loud voice echoed across the room.

"Commander!? Lieutenant Commander Shepard!" Came the female voice and Marcus quite literally had to look up and ahead of Kaidan's back to see who it was. He rolled his eyes and groaned when he saw a woman with shortly cropped brown hair and a red dress approach him, with a white television news drone hovering over her. She was headed for him.

When the woman finally reached him, she held out her hand.

"Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Khalisah Bint-Sinan Al-Jilani, Westerlund News. I work in colloboration with the Alliance News Network and would like to ask you a few questions." The woman named Khalisah informed him, and he immediately knew that as soon as the word 'yes' came out of his mouth, he'd regret it. He didn't like reporters, and he certainly wasn't about to make time for them.

"Look, Miss Al-Jilani, I'm trying to enjoy som and you ain't part of that enjoyment. If you have something to say, then simply get to it and be over with it." Marcus demanded, and leaned back, waiting for the reporter's undoubtedly unrelenting questions.

The reporter simply huffed, "Very well, Lieutenant Commander. First question. Many people believe you are going to become the best thing that happened to humanity. However, what do you think the people of the Terra Firma Party think of your assortment of...aliens? Not to mention the poorly concealed presence of a...quarian on your team?" Khalisah asked, and already she successfully irritated the spectre.

"And why would I want her concealed anyway?" Marcus had noticed Tali's uncomfortable posture and she looked like she wanted to melt into the seat and disappear. But he wouldn't have any member of his team being bullied by anyone...especially reporters.

"Well, because she's a thief and a vagrant..." Khalisah began, but Marcus cut her off.

"And this 'thief and a vagrant' has helped me liberate the Feros colony from a geth assault recently while you were sitting down, sipping coffee, filing out news reports. Which do you think was more helpful?" Marcus asked the woman, and she was left completely speechless, but he wasn't done, "And this woman, a young girl who barely knows anything about the outside world, has willingly put her fear aside, put her life on the line, to save possibly millions of people who have treated her people like a sack of garbage. That's more than anyone could ask her to do. As for my team, they've put their lives on hold to help me. Its more than anyone should have to put up with, but they do it anyway."

"So the next time you go asking people what they think of aliens, be careful, because they might be doing more than you get paid for in a life time. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to ask you to leave before I either call C-Sec to have you removed or I remove you myself. Spectre, remember?" He elongated the word 'remember' for more emphasis and felt a smile cross his lips at the sight of the lost for words reporter.

"I-I-I...but I'm not..." Khalisah began, but Marcus simply cut her off. The sharp way. He stood up and approached the reporter.

"I've had enough of your snide insinuations!" Without hesitation, he gave the reporter a right hook in the face, causing her to reel back, cradling her face in pain, her nose bleeding as she fell onto the ground. Garrus gave a whistle of surprise while Tali sat bolt upright, Kaidan laughing at the reporter. Everyone in the club seemed to stop and watch the exchange, even Liara approached.

"You son of a bitch! This footage will be on the news update!" Khalisah threatened, standing up as she moved to leave. Marcus called out after her.

"Good! I can't wait to watch you get punched all over again, bitch!" With that, Marcus sat back down, and Tali was already chastising him.

"You shouldn't have done that. Punching a reporter." Tali shook her head.

"Probably not, but it felt good though. And you don't deserve the shit they throw at you. You're meant to be enjoying yourself, not listening to these fuckwits rant and rave about human purity. Now, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted by the galaxy's most annoying reporter?" Marcus asked, throwing a quick wink in Tali's direction, which caused her to blush under the mask.

The night dragged on for a long while afterwards, noone coming to arrest him for hitting the reporter which either meant that the reporter had run off or simply noone cared. There was a huge amount of people who weren't big fans of the media, and when he said it like that, he basically mean that noone were fans of the media. So everyone was as likely to stick their heads out for them as he was to fall in love with a hanar. It just wasn't going to happen.

It hadn't been long before Tali had finally decided to let herself have some alcoholic beverages, which quickly became one too many. After another couple of hours, the crew had returned to the Normandy, Marcus carrying a drunken Tali back to her sleeping pod. The day had been a long one, and he figured that everyone would need to get proper rest in preparation for the next day.

When everyone had left to finish off their duties for the night, Marcus approached and opened Tali's sleeper pod, carefully placing the slumbering quarian girl in it and closing the hatch, activating the humming device as he did so. She would wake up with a pretty big headache from her hangover, and she'd regret it alot. He had been planning to head back to his cabin, but his eyes had caught on the quarian and weren't leaving.

He hadn't bothered to notice before, but Tali looked so peaceful when she slept, like a sleeping angel, hence her namesake. In a quick moment of reverie, he remembered that Tali was also a jewish name, and it surprised him so. He also remembered that he had forgotten to welcome in _shabut, _but he had let it slip. Their wouldn't be a _shabut _to welcome in if the galaxy was wiped out by crazy, genocidal machines.

He stood there for another couple of minutes, watching as Tali slept. He felt like he shouldn't be watching, as if he was invading the young girl's privacy by doing so. But the solace given to him by doing that was something he hadn't been able to treasure for years. Only one girl had ever given him that kind of solace...

_Tali, just what have I done? Such innocence trapped on the most dangerous mission in the galaxy. Maybe it would have been better if you had just never met me..._

Shaking his head clear of those thoughts, he made his way down towards his cabin to get some rest. He hadn't gotten much lately, and he desperately needed some now, especially if he wanted to be in fighting shape to fight the geth soon. Why? Because they were headed to the Armstrong Cluster, where presumably a geth battlegroup was awaiting their arrival. And he planned to give them a welcoming party.

As he slipped under the covers he immediately found himself drifting to sleep. It wasn't long before it claimed him; all the fatigue he had conjured over this past month consuming him in total slumber. But so did the visions.

Screaming, destruction, blood, synthetic horns that promise nightmares. Fires, gunfire, explosions, raining damnation upon the Protheans as world after world burns in a torrent of fire. Planets become overrun with reaper forces, their ships so powerful they decimated entire Prothean fleets without so much as stopping.

Then the black planet..., that horrible planet...and Sovereign.

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING.**

Marcus' eyes shot open and he jolted up right in the bed. Even during the relatively short vision, he had sweat caked all over his skin, even soaking the bed sheets. He rose his hands up to wipe away the horrid substance, only for the sweat on his hands to be added to it. In the end, he had simply gotten out of the bed and gotten a towel, wiping the sweat completely off before retreating back to his bed and sitting on the edge, not even bothering with sleep.

All he did was stare at the wall, like it was the object of his torment, the thing that kept him awake at night. In retrospect, he couldn't stop thinking about what Shiala had said on Feros, about Saren's flagship, about...Sovereign. The Reaper ship that had the ability to control minds. One that had conquered Saren's and Benezia's. For all he knew, the actual Reaper crew could be on that ship. That, or they had long run out of power, and the ship was all that was left.

But there was no denying the power this Sovereign held. The way it was described...it was as if the vessel could take on the combined might of the Alliance fleets and still win. But that couldn't be possible, could it? _Even if it's not, that ship will still have geth escorts, and those ships could take on Alliance cruisers singlehandedly, hell, even battleships!_

Marcus didn't even know if the geth possessed dreadnoughts, but it was likely they did, and that the machines would use them to their full ability, and geth cruisers were powerful enough, dreadnoughts would be close to unstoppable. And even then, those dreadnoughts wouldn't compare with the might of Sovereign, a ship light years ahead in technological power and origin. They not only outclassed in military power, but in technological advancement. If only the Protheans were still around...

Marcus sighed and shook the thought away, instead going back outside and to the Mess Hall, taking a packet of datapads with him. Once there he had sat down, pulling out the first datapad that had information on the geth's activities in the Armstrong cluster.

Apparently a geth fleet had been reported leaving the Perseus Veil and were pursued by another Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate; SSV Stalingrad, and made the report that the geth fleet had split up and covered the Armstrong cluster, most likely in attempting to invade Armstrong first.

All but one of the four systems had been covered apparently; Hong, Tereshknova, Vamshi and Gagarin. The only system left untouched was the Grissom System, which for unknown reason was left ignored. The geth proceeded to land on a single planet in each of those systems; Casbin, Antibaar, Maji and Rayingri. Upon further examination, they found that the geth were deploying ground forces on the planets to set up outposts, and then suspectly develop them into full-scale bases.

This confirmed one fear of the Alliance Brass; the geth were preparing for a full-scale invasion, using the Armstrong Cluster as a staging area for their attack, and they were worried that if the incursion was allowed to develop to this stage, nothing would be able to stop them, which is where the Normandy comes in.

Alliance Brass, particulary Admiral Hackett, wanted Marcus to deploy on each of the worlds and execute a simple task; find and wipe those outposts off the map. Don't give the enemy a chance to develop proper fortifications. Hackett had already informed him that the Alliance Third Fleet was already underway and en route towards the cluster, and upon arrival they would find all systems wiped clean of geth. When the geth fleet returned, they would find their foothold liberated, and forced into retreat, ending the geth threat in that general area.

The plan was straightforward and simple, but the intel on enemy units down there wasn't. Dropships scoured each world, ready to offload more troops while a Colossus was reported to guard each outpost; two at worst. Of course they'd be using the Mako, but the Colossi were still a pain even then. And the dropships; without a flagship to return to, the geth would have to use everything they had; including the dropship. And even dropships had weaponry.

With a heavy sigh he dropped the datapad, but his eyes never left it. The entire galaxy was being overrun with suicidal geth and everyone was running to him when it came to destroying them. Soon he'd be on the front line of some unknown world, whittled down by geth platforms and forced to hold position until reinforcements arrived. But this was what true war was like; not mercenary raids or piracy, true war with an enemy that wanted you wiped off the galactic map, not to mention wanting to bring back the machines that wiped out all sentient life fifty thousand years ago.

Someday, just someday, Marcus would find the time to retire from his Alliance career, lay back on Earth and raise a family, marry a beautiful wife...

Until then though, he had a race of hyper-advanced machines to send straight to hell.

**{Loading...}**

_June 24, 2183_

_1353 hours._

_Breeding Facility Section A-04, Western Perimeter, Geth Fortress, Virmire._

_Eden Prime War._

_Prophet Saren Arterius, Scientist Rana Thanoptis._

"Asari, I want that update as soon as you can file it. The faster we breed those krogan the better." Saren demanded, pacing the room as the asari worked nonstop on her console. Rana sighed, slamming her palms on the console in exasperation.

"The krogan troops you requested are breeding as fast we can collect the genome, but Doctor Droyas is very insistent on the genophage cure. Are we really going to cure the genophage?" Rana asked the rogue spectre, and Saren simply spun around and slammed his own fists into the table, the turian fixing the asari with an icy stare, his glowing, synthetic eyes onwithering and piercing her skull sending chills down her spine.

"Of course not, you moron. I'm using it to placate them. Curing the genophage would not be in this galaxy's best interests, but as long as Droyas believes he's getting a cure, then the more krogan soldiers I'll find at my disposal. Now, how has Benezia progressed? Any trouble on Noveria I should be aware of?" Saren asked.

"Benezia reported back three days ago to state that Peak 15 had gone silent and she had taken her commandos down to investigate. She has left the crates full of geth hoppers to cover her escape if Shepard does indeed try and stop her. What do we have at Peak 15 that is so important sir?" Rana asked.

"I have an armada of geth and optimistic krogan warriors, why not add controllable Rachni to that? Geth and krogan are one thing, but rachni are very territorial creatures and very aggressive, makes sense for me to add them to our army and make them a valuable ally when we launch Operation: Harvest." Saren explained.

"Rachni? I thought they were extinct!" Rana squelled.

"Calm yourself, asari. They may have been thought extinct, but the ship we discovered dictated otherwise. If Peak 15 has gone silent then something must have gone wrong. If so, Benezia and her commandos will sort it out, she's on good terms with Binary Helix and the ERCS guards there. Any intervention on Shepard's part will be nill. What about Feros? Have the geth dealt with the Thorian?"

"That's...negative, sir." Rana muttered.

"What? Explain." Saren hissed.

"Apparently Shepard landed and pushed back our forces, destroying the frigate you had stationed. Then he returned, freed Shiala and destroyed the Thorian himself. The colony remains intact and unharmed." Rana informed him.

"Damn it! That means Shepard got the cipher! No matter, with the Thorian dead it means he's completed the loose end for us. What about the Armstrong Cluster? Any word from our forces stationed there?" Saren ordered.

"The geth forces report that all designated worlds are occupied, any inhabitants killed and outposts are set up. The fleet has left for the Tikkun System, Perseus Veil to gather supplies so they can build full-scale bases. They request addtional support from the Virmire base, should I confirm?" Rana asked.

"Yes. Ask what resources they need and inform they will be delivered. Everything is setting in motion, good. In due time, it will come that Sovereign will finally bring about the return of the Reapers, and when they come, I want the galaxy to bow down to them and accept their fate. Only then will the Reapers show us mercy and allow us all to live."

Finishing his speech, he nodded at Rana to continue her work before heading out the door and towards the elevator they would head down to his lab. The elevator ride was pretty short; shorter by Citadel standards, and in notime he was in his lab. Two ramps on either side of the room lead into the lower lab where a second Prothean beacon sat, completely still, no sounds from its bulk.

Another platform split the ramps and extended to the end of the room, where a single red, holographic console sat, the holographic image of Sovereign hovering infront of it. The synthetic's booming, cybernetic voice sounded before he could speak.

**SAREN. I SUSPECT GOOD NEWS IS IN ORDER. IT BETTER BE, FOR MY PATIENCE WITHERS WITH EVERY PASSING MOMENT. THE ASCENSION CANNOT BE DELAYED MUCH LONGER.**

Saren simply nodded as he approached the end of the platform, crossing his turian arms as he began to speak.

"Everything goes according to plan. Our krogan army is coming along, the geth are setting up fortifications quite nicely and Benezia is collecting our supply of rachni troops. It won't be long before our mission is complete and we can proceed with Operation: Harvest."

**THE GETH ARE SIMPLY A DEVIATION FROM THE PLAN. THE RACHNI ARE NOTHING BUT CANNON FODDER AND THE KROGAN WILL SERVE THEIR PURPOSE DUTIFULLY. THE FAILURE ON THERUM IS NOT TO BE REPEATED. I HAVE READ THE MIND OF THE ASARI, THANOPTIS, AND I HAVE DISCOVERED THE INFERIOR MACHINE'S FAILURE ON FEROS. THIS WAS EXPECTED. WITH THE THORIAN DESTROYED HOWEVER WE CAN MOVE ON WITHOUT FURTHER HASSLE. THE COLONY WAS MERELY AN OBSTACLE, WITH THAT OBSTACLE REMOVED WITH CAN PROCEED ONTO PHASE THREE. INITIATION OPERATION: CARNAGE. IT IS TIME TO BEGIN OUR INVASION.**

Sovereign declared.

"Very well, the geth just need to finish deploying and then we'll launch. They will not fail like on Feros, not this time, Sovereign, I assure you of that. You remember our deal?" Saren asked, his voice dripping with worry.

**YOUR EMOTIONS ARE CORRUPTING YOUR JUDGMENT. THE ORGANICS WILL NOT BE DESTROYED. THEY WILL BECOME SLAVE LABOR FOR OUR FLEETS AS WE MAKE THIS GALAXY OUR HOME. YOUR DESTRUCTION WOULD BE A LIABILITY. WE HAVE FORSEEN THIS GALAXY'S USEFULNESS AND WILL UTILIZE IT AS A NECESSITY. BRING THEM TO THEIR KNEES AND LET THEM SEE WHAT WE OFFER; LET THEM WITNESS THE ASCENSION.**

"Oh they shall, Sovereign. They shall." Saren announced, before leaving the room and reentering the elevator, his turian mandibles twitching into a turian smile.

_Soon those Council beaurocrats will witness true power, and when their defenses come crumbling around them; when the Destiny Ascension is nothing but molten wreckage in a fleet of debris, they will beg for mercy, and that's when the galaxy will realize what the Reapers truly offer:_

_Salvation._

**"So, Geth Incursions in the Armstrong Cluster, heh? There are memorials all over the galaxy, but nothing in the Armstrong cluster because it was mostly uninhabited."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"What was their to mourn, the hordes of dead geth? Who were going to mourn an enemy that tried to wipe them out? That sided with the deadliest force in the galaxy in securing our damnation? And before you ask, the mission in the Armstrong cluster was actually more important then you might care to know. It actually dramatically affected the relationship between Shepard and Tali." **

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"And how was it affected?" **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"A little something called information." **

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**


	16. Chapter 13 Officers and Doctors

_**Sorry guys! I know this chapter took forever to come out, but you can thank a power outage for that. Apparently it corrupted the document and erased everything I had done (8,000 words) so I've had to start over. I wonder if it was done to personally hit me and demoralize me. Writing fanfics are fun, but not when you're rewriting a whole 8,000 words. *sigh* **_

_**Also, I made a reference to Full-Paragon's 'Keelah Se'lai' in here. I think you'll spot it pretty easily! **_

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

**THE VENGEFUL OFFICER AND A SICK DOCTOR**

_June 24, 2183_

_1121 hours. _

_Cargo Hold, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Armstrong Cluster. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Petty Officer Second Class Frederick Deve Johnson._

Johnson's voice were nothing but background noise as Garrus blankly stared at the outer hull of the Mako. All Garrus could think about was the mission he and the rest of the crew currently faced. Saren. Sovereign. The geth. The reapers. All four needed to die and the small team of oddly arranged aliens were the only ones standing between them and total galactic destruction. It was quite funny actually. He started as a rebellious police detective, and now he was helping the Alliance fight off deadly, genocidal machines intent on wiping everyone out. Not quite what he expected his life to be like.

It was times like these that he really wish he could talk to his father. He had tried many times to call him back on Palaven, but he had ignored his calls, probably out of sheer disappointment in his son's actions. His father may have been a regulation officer of his own, but he still had things to say that helped Garrus feel better. All he had here was a Mako to stare at...and Johnson; annoying, shy and...annoying Johnson. Finally, Garrus sighed and turned to face the human, who was apparently still talking despite the turian ignoring him.

"...so basically I think shotguns are better than sniper rifles, as they can quite easily blow your enemies into nothing, sniper rifles just pepper 'em with holes. Not as good. Garrus? Are you even listening to me?" Johnson finished explaining, allowing the turian to respond.

"Yeah, yeah of course. I was just...thinking about...personal things. Look, I should get back to work and you've got to get some rest. You've been sneezing nonstop." Garrus observed, and he was right. Ever since the Feros mission, Johnson had been having allergic reactions whenever near Tali, as apparently the green liquid that stained the quarian's suit had really fucked with his senses.

"I haven't been-" Johnson's spout of denial was immediately cut off by a burst of mucus erupting from the man's nose and spraying the close to perfectly polished hull.

"Damn it Johnson! I worked all night to keep that clean and you've gone and sneezed on it! You need rest, like right now! Besides, Tali comes down here all the time, so your reaction will only get worse!" Garrus growled mockingly, reaching into his armor's pockets and pulled out a cloth, moving to wipe the lime-green sickly substance from the alliance tank. Johnson nodded in defeat as he moved towards the elevator, the man taking off his cap to wipe his hair before the door closed behind him.

Garrus shook his head as he wiped away the last piece of mucus from the Mako's hull, now turning back to his console. When he had said he had work to do, he had been lying. Every calibration to be done of the Mako was complete and he had successfully wiped away the scorch marks the armatures had left on the Mako from their deadly siege pulse weapons.

All there was to do now was simply stare at a wall, and Garrus couldn't do that. He was a 'do something all the time or your useless' kind of guy. In the end, he relented into doing a popular pass time of his clean; polishing his sniper rifle. Vakarians were snipers. Even his father was considered the best marksman in the turian hierarchy. But with enough practise, Garrus was sure he could outdo his father and become the best turian marksman that lived. Even his mother had some kind of sniper training and Solona was going through the trainer's course even has he approached his locker.

When he finally found his locker, which had 'Garrus Vakarian' and 'Raptor' engraved under it, which was right next to Tali and Ashley's, he keyed his special personal code and opened it, revealing his private contents inside; his reaper-model sniper rifle, raptor-model assault rifle, armor wax, his combat armor, replacement kinetic barrier generators and even a few personal pictures.

His mandibles curled into a smile as he looked at the picture of his mother, father, sister and himself posing for a photo on Palaven's largest moon, Menae, which was possibly the only moon to have breathable atmosphere, or had one at all. He even had a picture of his ex-girlfriend; an asari by the name of Tila who had left him for drugs and sex. He had no idea what he wanted to remember her, but he simply shook the thought from his mind as he ripped the sniper rifle out of his locker and locked it, moving over to a bench next to Ashley.

As he sat the heavy rifle on the bench, he shot a glance at Wrex who was six meters away and behind one of the crates, reading a book attentively. Looking closer he could see the book was called 'MacBeth' and laughed at the krogan's interes in human drama. For a big, tough, bloodthirsty warrior, he sure liked his human dramatics.

Concealing the grin on his scaly face, he looked back at his rifle and decided to give it a paintjob. He didn't like the red exterior, and preferred to color it blue, in representation of the turian's favourite color. Red represented blood, and blood was definitely a krogan thing. Turian and Krogan interests really didn't mix.

"Don't you have your own bench?" Ashley's voice came from behind him, derailing his chain of thought. He felt a slight growl slip past his turian lips as years of turian military training restrained him from grabbing the infuriating human in a death grip and slamming her into a wall. Instead, he gave a cool and calm answer.

"Yes, but that is meant for work on a vehicle, not a weapon. Not to mention I don't have custom paint of my own. This is a proper armoury, makes sense to do it here." Garrus responded as cooly as possible.

"Then customize your bench. I don't like sharing my armoury with dinos." Ashley spat, her tone hinting at one of aggression. Garrus had had enough, and he wasn't taking this human's shit anymore. He spun around to face the human, mandibles twitching in anger.

"Then maybe you should just get used to it! If you dare try and blame me for the First Contact War, at least remember this; I was just a child! I didn't even fight during that conflict and I hold no prejudice against your people!" Garrus snapped.

"It is because of your people that I'm...cursed with this...rank. I can't even rank as high as sergeant because the brass fear a repeat of the fall of Shanxi! My entire family blackmailed because of what you dinos did to us!" Ashley shot back, leaning closer, but doing so with a turian certainly wasn't smart. Wrex didn't notice or didn't care, too engrossed in his book.

"And it is because of your racism that we can't have good relations without throwing in an insult every now and then! You're letting your hatred of my people get in the way of facts! I wasn't there, I did no wrong by you, and I'm done with this conversation!" Garrus shouted, causing the human to back into her bench, and Garrus simply smashed a fist into the bench he was using.

Without looking back at her, Garrus tried to shake away his anger by working on his sniper rifle. Ashley simply stormed out of the cargo bay and into the elevator, slapping the door panel and travelling up to the Crew Deck. Garrus snorted. Good riddens.

For an hour he tried his best to concentrate on painting his rifle, and he succeeded to a point. He managed to do all the major parts, but the beeping of his personal terminal next to the Mako interrupted him. Sighing, he left his sniper rifle on the bench and walked over to the terminal, pressing the activation key and seeing that Bailey was requesting a vidcall.

Smiling, he accepted the request and waited for the call to connect; which was in no time at all. At some point he'd have to thank the man, or woman, who invented comm buoys. It wasn't long before the veteran, old features of the C-Sec sergeant appeared on screen.

"Bailey, didn't think I'd be talking to you so soon." Garrus stated.

"Yeah, neither did I. So how is it out there? Have you killed Saren yet?" Bailey asked optimistically.

"If we had, it'd be on the news. And I know how much you love watching the media scream." Garrus responded.

"Sure do. But of course, I didn't call because I thought you were lonely. Got some information I thought you might be interested in looking at." Bailey announced.

"Hit me. I think that's the human term." Garrus responded and Bailey merely chuckled as he continued.

"I'm sending you the datapacket. It's heavily encrypted as it's information I shouldn't be showing you...legally anyway. I can't tell you anything else over a unsecure channel, but trust me, this information is as good as it gets. Enjoy." Bailey simply gave the man a large grin as he cut the channel and Garrus merely laughed silently as he opened the datapacket he had just received.

What he saw made his body freeze. Information on a long lost criminal. One so sick and cruel that he experimented on the living. The exact same bastard he had been hunting for years. Bailey had found his location, and if this information was accurate, he needed to be found and killed. This was information he could not ignore. If he asked Shepard to make a tiny detour, then maybe he could end the bastard.

Or he could get rejected and told that the mission was more important.

But he couldn't pass this chance. For all he knew the sick doctor could already be on the move and leaving, which made his proposition all the more desperate. He needed to talk with Shepard, and he needed to do it now.

Closing his terminal, Garrus headed straight for the elevator and once he watched the door open, he slapped the control panel and watched the door close again, the elevator ascending up a level.

_I've found you, doctor, and your time is out. No more running. No more hiding._

_It's pay day. _

**{Loading...}**

_June 24, 2183_

_1142 hours. _

_Cockpit, Kowloon-Class Modular Conveyor MSV Fedele, Kepler Verge Cluster, Herschel System. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Doctor Untaav Heart, Cerberus Operative Jeremy Reinburg._

Space. The neverending expanse. A place of unlimited wonders and worlds. Every star out there represented a huge, majestic star of light, and ever one of those suns was home to an entire system. Worlds upon worlds, systems upon systems, galaxies upon galaxies. All in one, huge universe. So many alien races left undiscovered, just waiting to make first contact with those outside their own galactic boundaries. As a salarian these possibilites baffled him, but as a sick doctor he couldn't care less.

Now he was on a hijacked, human manufactured merchant freighter; riding with a faction he thought he'd never find himself working alongside. Cerberus. A terrorist organization who's only goal was human dominance over all others. Aliens would burn, humanity would glorify and expand. Fanatical, probably religious zealots. All he knew is that he was working with the enemies of not just the salarian union, but the entirety of Council space.

Standing next to him was Jeremy Reinburg, a hardcore Cerberus appeaser; a glorified human training wheel. The man stroked his grizzled beard as he watched the loading bay cameras display his soldiers moving crates of what he thought were extinct bugs into the ship he once used as a spaceborne slaughter house. Now he was housing dead bugs for experimentation and from what Reinburg told him, breeding.

"I'm not helping you bring back genocidal bugs! And certainly not for terrorists!" Saleon boomed, but Reinburg seemed unfazed by the salarian's outburst. That or he was too occupied with his plans for the creation of his horrible biotroops.

"We are both terrorists doctor, just from two ends of a different spectrum. You experiment for the fun of it and money, we do it for the betterment of the human race. We have more...ambitious plans. The rachni will be Cerberus' to command, and you will help us breed them." Reinburg declared, pretty sure of himself.

"I refuse! What happens if I refuse?" Saleon asked.

"Well, we could either subject you to a taste of your own medicine and learn a little about salarian anatomy, feed you to the rachni we have or throw you out the airlock. All three are quite painful, I assure you." Reinburg informed the salarian. Saleon gulped and considered his options.

"But if you kill me, you won't be able to breed the rachni!" Saleon countered.

"What, you think only you can do it? You're alive because your a close-quartered asset. We can simply kill you and ask the Illusive Man to send a science team our way. So if you want to die, so be it." Reinburg hinted. Saleon just gave in. He was going to die if he didn't submit to his demands, and he'd rather live instead of suffering his liver getting removed while still breathing.

"Okay, okay! You don't have to kill me-" Saleon didn't even get to finish as two Cerberus commandos entered the room from behind him and restrained him by the arms, the salarian offering poor resistance to the much stronger human soldiers.

"Very good, now we'll set you up in your new lab. Peters, Rogers, kindly take him to the lab we've established into the old quarters. I think he'll find that the environment will accomodate his needs." Reinburg ordered the commandos and they simply nodded, moving out of the room and dragging Saleon along with them. Once again, the salarian offered no resistance for the stronger human males.

The freighter was a pretty small vessel, and the cockpit, medbay and curfew quarters were all in the same corridor, so it didn't take long before the salarian found himself outside the door to the ex-quarters. One of the commandos, presumably Rogers, hit the door panel and opened the door, moving to take Saleon inside.

What had once contained medical equipment, dead bodies and work benches, now contained cages filled with rachni, the insistent creatures screaming their hatred of the salarian as they tried desperately in vain to rip out of their prisons. Screeching was the norm in this area of the ship, and it was clear the rachni were out for blood. Thank god for the cages.

It wasn't long before Saleon found himself being forced into a chair behind the only desk in the room that lay at the end of the place. The cerberus soldiers barely gave Saleon a second glance as they took positions behind the salarian, entering parade rest. Great, his own personal bodyguards. Saleon's gaze quickly left the commandos behind him and drifted dowen to the datapads on his desk.

Rachni readouts, telepathic links, neural maps, genetic coding, everything about the rachni right on his desk. He looked around the room and saw the test equipment, the operating tools, the holographic readouts, heart rates (yes, rachni had hearts) and even restrainment collars. Hell, the rachni were plugged into the machines. Cerberus didn't want him to breed an army, they wanted him to repopulate their entire race, but this time enslaved. Saleon thought of the consequences of these human dominators having unlimited access to rachni troops. The after affects would be disastrous.

Saleon's logical side said to sneak off to engineering and detonate the engines; destroy the ship and everybody onboard. Send the last rachni straight to hell. He'd save billions, possibly trillions of lives, even salarian lives. He'd do the galaxy a great favor. He'd be the sick doctor turned silent hero.

His scientific side told him to ignore logic and do it. To create a rachni army in exchange for his life. Saleon was a coward, it was in his blood, and he sure wouldn't let it stop him now. So what if Cerberus had a rachni army? At least he'd get to live. The rest of the galaxy could burn for all he cared.

With renewed purpose, Saleon picked up the nearest datapad and began reading it.

He had chosen his fate.

Now only time would tell what consequences awaited him.

**{Loading...}**

_June 24, 2183_

_1237 hours. _

_Captain's Quarters, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Armstrong Cluster. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard._

Fist impacted steel. Marcus held in his grunt of pain as he shook his head from the stupid gesture. Marcus had gotten really sick of these reports, and now, to make it all the more painful, the Westerlund News Commission had sent him a message of 'chastisement', saying that the treatment of one of their reporters was uncalled for and unnessacary. A second later, here the spectre was, having just recovered from punching the hard surface of his desk.

He hated reporters so badly, now he realized how much. For all he knew, Khalisah could have fabricated a cover story to cover her ass. It really annoyed him how the media operated behind the scenes and noone was willing to do anything about it. Let the reporters believe what they want; it took real men to step up and do what's right instead of reporting it and filing it away in some archive as 'old news.'

He sighed as he pushed the datapad away and rubbed his eyes, staring blankly at the wall. He eventually just gave up and decided he'd talk to Tali down in engineering. Her soothing voice and 'chatterbox' persona would at least give him some relief from the constant headache he was receiving. Besides, he really needed to solve the issue that was bugging the both of them, and he needed to sort it out before hitting Casbin.

Just as he spun his seat around, he heard the doorbell ring. He mentally hoped it was Tali, coming to talk about...his feelings for her. He didn't care if she rejected him, all he wanted was a answer. All Tali had done was stay well away from him, and that wasn't much of an answer. Just talking to her about anything would get rid of his headache anyway.

"Enter" Marcus half-mumbled, half-yelled, too tired to rectify it. Luckily, that wasn't nessacary.

He was slighty disappointed when he saw it wasn't Tali, but Garrus. The turian nodded at Marcus before stepping inside and moving to stand in front of Marcus, standing in a parade rest as he waited for the commander to give him permission to speak.

"Garrus, you wanted to tell me something? You don't have to ask permission to speak. This isn't official military business. Speak your mind." Marcus informed the turian, and Garrus simply nodded, entering pensive thought as he thought about what to say.

"I found Doctor Saleon." Garrus blurted out leaving a confused expression on Marcus' face.

"Excuse me, you found who exactly?" Marcus asked, having no clue on who this 'Doctor Saleon' person was.

"Oh right, sorry. He's this criminal I've been tracking for close to a decade. I never found him when he escaped the Citadel, but thanks to a lead from Bailey, I've finally found the sick son of a bitch." Garrus declared. Marcus shook his head and gestured for the marksman to sit down, which he did and he turned to face him.

"Okay, tell me about Saleon and why you've brought this up. Tell me about your history with him." Marcus asked in a non-orderly manner, more like a 'friend-to-friend' way.

"Right, well, several years ago, I had just finished this case when reports of people disappearing began popping up," Garrus began, "C-Sec got suspicious and had me investigate. So I set up and watched some of the more likely targets and sure enough, I found them kidnapped by Eclipse mercs. I called in backup, but they didn't get there in time."

"Eventually we managed to track the eclipse operations to a single laboratory down in the Zakera Ward, and they sent me and a Special Response Unit, along with some SWAT soldiers to storm the lab and secure all eclipse mercs as prisoners and find the actual mastermind," Garrus paused for a effect, "When we got there though, Saleon was gone. Took the last of his victims and fled."

"Victims?" Marcus questioned.

"Ah yes, I haven't told you why he kidnapped those people," Garrus paused with a disgusted expression on his face, "He-He cut them up and dissected them, taking out their organs and selling them to the highest bidder. Hearts, lungs, brains, salarian livers, asari kidneys, even krogan testicles."

"Krogan...testicles?" Marcus asked with a half-amused and half-disgusted look on his features.

"Yeah, testicles. He said that they were sterilized and could override the genophage, all crap of course," Garrus continued, "Apparently Eclipse had fled as well, but some of his employees had been left behind so we interrogated them. But, in the middle of the interrogation, one of them started...hemorrhaging. All of them did. What we found was absolutely revolting and sick beyond measure."

"He wasn't just taking their organs out Shepard, he was growing NEW organs, cloned organs, INSIDE of his employees. When they died, we did an autopsy and found two hearts, four lungs, four sets of testicles, two brains...it was horrible, Shepard," Garrus informed him "So I went after him, but I was too late. He had hijacked a vessel, a merchant freighter called the MSV Fedele and fled on it. I ordered Citadel defense to shoot him down, but C-Sec overrode my order, saying they couldn't fire on hostages. I told them they were dead anyway, but they didn't listen. So Saleon escaped, and I've been hunting him ever since."

"And now you've found the sick fuck." Marcus declared with such vehemence in his voice it was practically overflowing.

"Exactly. He's in the Kepler Verge Cluster, Herschel System. Registry matches the Fedele, didn't even change ship the moronic fool. He's under the alias of 'Doctor Untaav Heart' and is logged in all systems as a organ donor, but I know better. It's him. I can practically smell Saleon all over him. The fact that he's salarian just makes it all the more likely."

"And let me guess, you want us to change course and hit this ship so you can kill Saleon?" Marcus asked. Garrus gulped. This was it. Moment of truth.

"Yes. I want to send his ship straight to oblivion." Garrus declared.

"Request denied." Marcus blurted out. Garrus was left utterly disappointed, but Marcus wasn't finished.

"I want to put a bullet through his head." Marcus said with renewed malice, and Garrus simply nodded approval.

"Thank you Shepard." Garrus thanked.

"If you truly believe this man is dangerous, then he has to be stopped. And if he has eclipse mercenaries, we'll take care of 'em." Marcus stated, while slamming a closed fist into his open palm.

"Yes, Shepard. I'll go up to the cockpit and inform Joker of our chance of coordinates." Garrus informed the spectre and Marcus simply nodded to him as he left the room, his destination: the cockpit. The turian climbed up the stairs and onto the CIC deck, where he quickly made his way over towards the flight deck and across it. Pressly simply pushed passed the turian on his way back to the galaxy map, not even acknowledging him.

Garrus simply let it slide as he passed the numerous alliance officers on duty, finally arriving in the cockpit of the vessel. Joker wasn't even facing in the turian's direction as he seemed much more focused on the screen in front of him which held the face of doctor Chakwas, probably talking to the human pilot about his brittle bone disease, known apparently as Vrolik's syndrome if he heard correctly.

Sighing, Garrus tapped the back of Joker's chair and the human gave a sigh of exasperation.

"One second, doc. Look this better be good becau-" When Joker spun his chair around to fully face the turian, a look of epiphany hit his face.

"Oh! Garrus! Uh...hi! What can...I...uh...do for...you?" Joker seemed to trail off, now fully aware of who he was addressing.

"Nothing. Just wanted to tell you that Shepard wants you to set a course for the Kepler Verge Cluster, Herschel System. Once there, scan the system for a ship and then dock with it." Garrus informed the pilot.

"Kepler Verge Cluster? That's at least another day's travel from the Armstrong Cluster. Why are we going there?" Joker asked.

"We've found a criminal that needs to die." Garrus explained, leaving out the fact that it had been Garrus who had received the information and that this was just a favor from Shepard. Joker raised an eyebrow, but didn't object when he faced the console again.

"Okay, setting a course. Should be there in four days, tops." Joker said with what sounded like relief, but Garrus shook it off as he headed back down the flight deck and towards the elevator on the Crew Deck. He had a rifle to finish painting. He could hear Chakwas speaking to Joker, and the answer made him laugh.

"So have you been taking those meds I sent you?" Chakwas asked the pilot and he heard an exaggerated sigh.

"Yes mum. I've taken all my meds, I know they'll make me big and strong!" Joker responded comically, and Garrus left chuckling.

**{Loading...}**

_June 28, 2183_

_1414 hours. _

_Airlock, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Herschel System, docking with the MSV Fedele._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Marksman Garrus Vakarian._

Marcus fit on his last gauntlet as he waited for the rest of his crew. Out of the team, he had decided to take everyone with him save Liara, who had apparently been exhibiting strange behaviour and was in the med bay with Doctor Chakwas. Glancing over at Ashley, he found the woman trying desperately not to glare at Garrus, who was pacing up and down the airlock hatch, trying his best not to look too pensive.

He could also hear the sound of music playing, presumably dubstep as it was still extremely popular even in the 22nd century, playing from Ashley's helmet as she had it at full volume. He shook his head in a amusement and watched as Tali arrived, talking with Wrex as the krogan presumably showed her how to properly hold a shotgun. It wasn't long before Kaidan finally arrived as well.

He shared a brief stare with Tali but it was quickly broken by both of them as they turned away. Apparently Wrex was asking Ashley about her music, but the human was either unaware, as her music was pretty loud, or she was deliberately ignoring the krogan. Either way, the krogan soon gave up and returned to showing Tali his shotgun, who listened very closely, trying her best not to glance at Shepard.

"Coming up on the Fedele now. One Mike to dock." Joker's voice rang over the comm before disappearing.

"Okay everyone, listen up." Marcus barked as he stepped to the front of the group, everyone's eyes turning to him except Ashley's, who was still lost in her music. A quick nudge from Kaidan caused her to glance immediately at him and she paused her music, causing Marcus to chuckle at her surprised expression.

"We are here to kill a dangerous criminal. A sick criminal. By no means is he to escape unharmed. We will board this ship, cleanse it of the eclipse crew and kill Saleon. Any questions?" Marcus asked.

"If we want Saleon dead so desperately, then why don't we simply get the Normandy to throw some javelin-torpedoes his way?" Ashley asked.

"Because this is...personal." Marcus trailed off, glancing at Garrus, who returned it, nodding. Apparently only Tali noticed this, as her stare had been directly fixed on him. Seeing no other questions, he turned to Tali.

"Good. Angel, you're taking my rear and you're in charge of hacking and security," He turned to the rest of the group, "Raptor, you're on point with me. Scarab, cover Tali's rear and Sentinel and Delta, I want you guarding me and Tali's flank. Keep together and don't give those mercs a chance to flank us. This should be a straight run and gun. Look out for hostages. If they look like they're in pain, put them out of their misery." Marcus ordered, and everyone nodded acknowledgement.

He felt the frigate shudder as they docked and the VI's synthetic, monotone voice sounded throughout the deck, "We are docked. Commanding Officer is ashore, XO Pressly has the deck." Marcus simply rolled his eyes as he equipped his Diamond Back assault rifle and moved to the front of the group, hitting the airlock panel just as Garrus joined his side.

The airlock door slid open to omit them into the ship, and they were met by the locked airlock of the Fedele itself. Tali was already on it, and it wasn't long before the door's red panel flashed green and slid open. Tali huffed.

"Really low-grade security here. These mercs for all their electronic expertise really can't lock doors." Tali said in a matter-of-fact professional tone, and he laughed. These mercs really were pathetic.

The room they found themselves in was really small, most likely a storage compartment due to the crates stacked all over the place. He raised his rifle and slowly, but steadily moved forward, followed by Garrus who was just as suspicious. It was quiet.

Too quiet.

Tali followed closely behind, her omni-tool glowing around her wrist as she bared her armageddon shotgun, Chiktika in a escort position next to the quarian woman. Ashley stood to her left and Kaidan to her right, followed by Wrex. All of them watching the room as if expecting varrent to leap out and attack them.

He watched as the door opened and a deep, female voice enter the room, "Storage compartment alarm triggered, checking it-" Marcus focused his weapon on the woman in an instant. She was wearing standard, light alliance combat armor, except it didn't sport the usual blue and black, but instead white and gold. She wore a breather helmet, disguising her features and she held a tsunami-model assault rifle infront of her in lower parry.

The logo on her chest and shoulders angered him beyond a doubt, but also shocked him. A gold hexagon with two flanking gold lines. The symbol of an enemy he thought he'd never come face to face with. These weren't eclipse mercs.

He was facing Cerberus.

Without thinking, he squeezed the trigger and a tidal wave of bullets pelted her shields, lighting them up in a flurry of bullets. Garrus' rifle joined the display of gunfire, quickly ripping apart the cerberus agent's shields and the armor hidden behind her kinetic barriers. It wasn't long before her body fell to the ground, face first, dead.

With pure anger, he moved forward and kicked her body on its back, crouching next to her. Ripping her helmet off her head, he found lifeless irises looking back at them. His anger disippated briefly as he moved a hand over her face, closing those lifeless eyes.

"Who were those people? Eclipse wear yellow/orange uniform, not white and gold. Who was she?" Garrus asked, visibly angered and confused. Had this been the wrong ship?

"She was Cerberus," Marcus hissed as he ripped the dogtags from the woman's neck and checked them. Just as he thought; an ex-Alliance marine, dishonorably discharged. 'Staff Sergeant Rachel Jackson, Commando.' He sighed heavily as he threw the dogtags on the ground.

"They're all human purists. They hate aliens and only care about the total glorification of the human race. You know the Terra Firma Party? Yeah, let's just say they have heavy backing in those politicians. They believe that humanity should be the galaxy's masters, that it's our destiny. Traitors I say. They mostly recruit CAT6, that means 'category 6 dishonorably discharged' marines or commandos."

"They started out as an Alliance Black Ops Unit before they went completely rogue and became the terrorist organization known as Cerberus. They cut all ties with the Alliance and disappeared. Noone knows where they're based, just that they are an enemy of the galaxy. Whatever they want with Saleon, I have no idea. Knowing Cerberus, he's dead already. But we continue on. I'm not leaving until every single one of these scumbags IS DEAD!"

Marcus charged through the door with renewed purpose, his squad falling in behind him. He headed right immediately, as the door ahead was locked and the door to the left lead to engineering. The door slid open to greet them into a large loading bay that could fit three to four Makos. The main part of the ship. All the crates and supplies had been tossed to his side of the room while a sickening, repulsive sight awaited them on the other side.

A pile of rotting, dissected, alien bodies lay on the other side of the room, just shoved into a pile and left there. The sickening smell made bile built up in his throat, and he was forced to switch on his olfactory filters to save him from the horrible smell. Looking to the right, he felt vehemence fill his body again. Another pile, but this time full of a HUMAN bodies. Even with the dead Cerberus played by the human rules. _Fucking scumbags._

Just as he stormed up the room, the door on the other side slid open to omit a full squad of Cerberus commandos, who all immediately opened fire on the team; a cacophony of assault rifle, pistol and shotgun fire. A single research tech was in the group, but his crappy idea of a combat drone was no match for Chiktika as a single incendiary projectile put it out of commission for good.

As Tali battled the research tech, Marcus unleashed, alongside Kaidan, a tsunami of biotic attacks, the cerberus troopers being thrown around the rag-dolls by the spectre's relentless attacks. It wasn't long before Marcus realized his shields were gone, and as if a reminder, a shot hit him in the shoulder, causing him to stumble slightly. He raised a biotic barrier to deflect further attacks and then disappeared in a flurry of blue as he turned into a homing missile, his body colliding with the nearest commando.

The man jerked before flying into a wall with a resounding crack. He was definitely dead. Recovering from his burst of adrenaline, Marcus felt the pain in his shoulder as he leapt into cover with Ashley. Kaidan activated his tech armor just as he incinerated a charging commando with a incineration blast, but her comrade quickly found cover before he could commit her to the grave.

Wrex simply crushed any commando in his past, using his shotgun and biotics to deadly effect, only having to dodge a commando's concussive blast once, and even that soldier didn't last long, being quickly introduced to Solokov, the bloody thirsty shotgun.

He turned to see Tali hiding in cover with Garrus, and looking around he found the dead body of the research technician, his torso completely bloodied from the impact of a shotgun slug and dead as dead can be. Garrus raised his sniper rifle and took aim, blasting the leading commando's head clean off.

"Fall back! Fall back to the fucking cockpit!" one of the commandos shouted, and Marcus took his chance. He keyed the combat comm.

"Scarab, suppressing fire! Angel, send Chiktika in and Sentinel, pound 'em with everything you got! Raptor, Delta, with me, push forward!" Marcus shouted and leapt out of his cover, switching diamond back for spectre shotgun. He quickly found Ashley and Garrus at his sides, a steady beat of gunfire exiting their weapons as they pressed upon the cornered Cerberus troops.

Wrex's attacks were unrelenting, pounding the commandos as they desperately looked for cover. Tali had Chiktika on them in seconds, the drone zapping shields and flaming the unlucky ones without them. Kaidan's warp attacks appeared all over the room, either hitting the wall and hitting commandos. Chaos filled the room.

"Where the fuck is Reinburg!? Tell him to get his fucking ass over here now! We've got a security breach in the loading bay and need immediate support! GET HERE NOW! We're boxed in!" The commando desperately shouted, but it was obvious this 'Reinburg' wasn't answering. These men were obviously just cannon fodder, disposable soldiers.

The commandos just didn't stand a chance. Shot after shot harassed the commandos and within minutes, every commando was dead. Not a single one of the human zealots had survived the assault, and they quickly advanced upon the door leading to the cockpit. He had raided Kowloon-Class freighters before as a N4, so he knew the layout of the ship.

After watching Tali hack and open the door he stepped forward and headed straight for the cockpit. No Cerberus resistance met them. As he approached the door however, he watched it open and a research tech exit. The man's eyes widened considerably as he tried to raise his pistol, but his body was lifted off the ground by solokov blast, the man's body falling limply into the floor of the cockpit. Wrex grinned a sadistic grin.

Marcus didn't miss a beat as he charged into the cockpit, the tech's blood coating the floor. The two pilots attempted to get up and retaliate, but two pistol shots coughed out of Ashley's pistol and both of the pilot's fell back in their seats, two clean shots through their foreheads.

"Sentinel, secure the cockpit, see what you can find. We'll scour the rest of the ship for this 'Reinburg' and see if Saleon's alive. If he is, he's dead." Marcus ordered, and Kaidan nodded as he pushed one of the pilot's out of the chair and sat in it, quickly typing into the terminal. Before Marcus could order anything else, a loud, synthesized scream whirled out.

It was Tali's voice.

"SPIDERS! Spiders spiders spiders! I HATE SPIDERS!" Tali continued to repeat, barreling down the corridor and almost jumping into Shepard's arms, but luckily she had restrained herself. Following after her, was a tiny creature, the size of a dinner plate. Definitely not a spider, not even an arachnid, but it had six legs and scuttled like one. It glowed green and was definitely not of any bug species from earth. With a resounding screech, it charged the group. Marcus simply stepped on it, crushing it under his feet.

"That is definitely not of any bug species I've seen." Marcus said as he picked up the remnants of the crushed bug.

"Do you think Cerberus has been...mutating bugs or something? Trying to create the perfect bioweapon, maybe?" Garrus asked, visibly intrigued by the dead insect.

"If Cerberus has entered the 'mad scientist' business, then they should be stopped. Whatever they've discovered must be destroyed with this ship. Find Reinburg and Saleon, kill them, then retreat to the Normandy and get Joker to blow it to hell!" Marcus ordered. Joker's voice entered his comm.

"Commander! We've got alliance corvettes attacking us! I had to bug out! I'm going to try and engage. They've got pretty mediocre defenses so it should be pretty easy. Whoever they are, they ain't Eclipse! Joker out."

"Great, now Cerberus has ships too. What else, a fucking fleet? Let's move out." Marcus barked again, and they renewed their search of the ship.

Marcus decided to start with the crew quarters of the ship, all based on a hunch. And he was right. The door opened to show them a room filled to the brim with cages. Inside of them were even larger bugs, these ones the size of teenage humans, with large red chitinous body structure, long, snaky pincer arms and crested heads. These insects were definitely not of the earth. Mutated or not.

"Ah Commander, I didn't think you'd be the one to basically decimate your own people. I expected more from you." Came a gruff voice from the other side of the room, and he spun around to face it.

A single soldier, most likely Reinburg himself, stood in parade rest, wearing the same armor as the two commandos behind him. He saw a single salarian sitting behind a desk behind the Cerberus operative, and he knew for certain it was Saleon by the way he looked at Garrus with wide-eyed fear.

"You're not my people, you scumbug. You stopped being my people when you joined Cerberus." Marcus shot back and Reinburg simply chuckled.

"The Illusive Man said you had very opinionated views. Cerberus is humanity's sword, what we do is for the betterment of the human race!" Reinburg shouted with pure dedicated, he was clearly a strong believer in the cause, a cause he wanted to destroy of course.

"Humanity's sword? Then that sword is pretty bloodied! And I'm pretty sure humanity isn't the one wielding it! You're dragging humanity down and making us look bad! You've put a single image on the galactic community! You've made us look like over-zealous murderers! And now you side with this...sicko piece of shit! What happened to humanity first, aliens never?" Marcus snapped, practically hissing the Cerberus motto.

"Who, Saleon? He's simply an asset we'll dispose of when the time comes. If we must use aliens to better humanity, so be it! Not only will we conquer the stars, but we'll become the true masters of the galaxy! Imagine a life without the Council ruling us! Imagine if humanity was in control!" Reinburg yelled.

"Tempting. I hate the Council, but I wouldn't subject the galaxy to human dictatorship or subjugation. This ends here. Whatever sick experiment is going on here, ends." Marcus declared, raising his rifle.

"A pity, we could have really used you Shepard. I cause the Illusive Man's faith was misplaced-" Reinburg began, but was cut off by Garrus.

"Saleon! He's escaping!" Marcus snapped his head around to see Saleon just meters away from the door and closing. Marcus charged after him, but the door was closed before he could stop the salarian, and the door locked.

"I'm sorry Operative Reinburg, but our contract is terminated. Enjoy your new residents!" Saleon beamed, running off.

"SALEON! I'm not letting him escape again!" Garrus charged forward, his fist smashing the door. His team stopped at the door and Tali got to work at opening the door just as they heard a human scream of agony. Marcus turned to see a horrific sight. A human leg went falling onto the ground just meters away from him, shredded. He looked further up to see the dead, decapitated body of a Cerberus commando as one of the insect creatures, their cages now opened, charged at the second one.

"Shit! They're loose! Get out! Get the fuck out-" The soldier never finished as a pincer entered his mouth and came out the otherside of his head. The animal let the body fall to the ground and Reinburg fired his assault rifle sporadically at it, his look of determination replaced by complete and paralyzing fear.

His entire team opened fire, but not before the creature ripped Reinburg apart, limb from limb. Hails of bullets finally dropped the creature and they focused their fire on the rest. During their assault, now one noticed one the creatures had flanked them and was headed for Tali, pincer raised.

Noone except Marcus.

He watched in almost slow motion as the pincer reared down on the oblivious quarian; too engrossed in her hacking to notice. That pincer would rip clean through her suit and rip her apart, killing the innocent, spunky and persistent quarian he had come to know as a friend. But he wouldn't allow it. She would not die to an enemy she didn't know. He charged forward and raised his arm in a block, the pincer impacting his shoulder. He screamed in pain as it cut through his armor and engraved itself there, blood everywhere.

Tali finally noticed and turned around, her shotgun out and sent a slug straight into the creature's crested face. The face was ripped apart, killing the oversized insect immediately and Marcus ripped the pincer out of his armor, letting the medi-gel fill his wound.

"The door's open! Everyone go go go!" Tali shouted, and everyone shot through the door, Wrex taking the flank. When everyone was through, Tali locked the door again and a tidal wave of the creatures surged into the door, battering uselessly against it.

"Everyone, back to the ship! We are leaving right now!" Marcus barked and they moved towards the airlock at a sprint, Tali taking up the rear. Upon hitting the door he stopped as he heard Saleon's smug voice.

"Escaped the lab did you? Well, I guess I'll have to kill you then."

Marcus turned to see Saleon holding Tali as a pistol tapped the side of her helmet. Everyone raised their rifles to shoot Saleon, but he ordered them lowered, not wanting to harm Tali. Everyone did, except Garrus.

"Raptor, stand down!" Marcus demanded.

"Saleon is not escaping. Not this time." Garrus muttered, keeping his weapon aimed at the salarian.

"You. Will. Stand. Down!" Marcus barked.

"I can't Shepard! Won't let him escape again!" Garrus shouted his finger squeezing the trigger.

Marcus' arms acted on instinct and his arm shot forward, biotics lifting the pistol out of Garrus' hand and throwing it against the bulkhead as Kaidan restrained the turian. Turning around, he saw Tali still restrained by Saleon. He smiled at her warmly and he keyed his private comm with the quarian.

"Remember what I taught you." He whispered.

It took a few seconds for Tali to remember those words and she acted immediately. Saleon spoke but never finished, "So if you don't mind, I'll be-"

Tali stepped on his toe hard and the Saleon stumbled with the pistol grip. He let go slightly, allowing the quarian to elbow him in the face and send the salarian reeling back, releasing his grip completely. The salarian stumbled and Marcus raised his pistol. Garrus' protests rung hollow as he brought the pistol to bare on the salarian's forehead. He pulled the trigger.

A burst of green blood and the slump of a body marked Saleon's demise, the salarian's body slumping to the ground. He checked to make sure Tali was okay and they moved towards the airlock, Kaidan still holding Garrus as the turian continued his protests.

"NO! He was mine! My responsibility! It should have been me who killed him!" Garrus objected and Marcus simply glared at him vehemently.

"I'll deal with you back on the ship." Marcus growled, and ne nodded to Kaidan for him to let go of Garrus. The turian lingered for a moment, glaring at the salarian's dead body before storming towards the airlock, Kaidan and Marcus not far behind.

"Corvettes dealt with Commander. Coming to pick you up." Joker announced through his comm and Marcus simply nodded, entering the Fedele's airlock.

What a hell of a day.

**"I guess Mr. Vakarian got a lot of shit for that stunt." **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Yeah. But then Shepard sorted him out. Biggest. Lecture. Ever."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"And when did you find out the creatures were Rachni?" **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"More like where. We found out on a planet far, far away..."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**


	17. Chapter 14 Don't Fall To Their Level

**2ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN:**

**DON'T FALL TO THEIR LEVEL**

_June 28, 2183_

_1459 hours. _

_Cargo Hold, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Armstrong Cluster. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Marksman Garrus Vakarian._

It had only been a few minutes ago since the mission on the Fedele. The mission had been a complete roller coaster of unexpected twists, with a terrorist organization becoming involved and deadly alien superbugs almost killing them. After escaping the Fedele, he had ordered Joker to destroy the freighter incase someone were to accidentally stumble upon it and release the bugs. Not to mention it would kill any cerberus troops they missed on the way out.

Now all he had to deal with was Garrus. Doctor Chakwas had insisted he get medical assistance immediately, as he was bleeding badly from his shoulder wound and arm wound from when he had saved Tali. He insisted back that he would get the assistance when he dealt with Garrus. The turian's actions had been unacceptable and almost got Tali killed.

Those moments reappeared in the spectre's mind; how Saleon held Tali at gunpoint and how much Garrus didn't care, he just wanted to kill Saleon and didn't care if Tali had to die for him to die. Garrus always seemed like the one to do what was right when it was nessacary, but the day's events had presented a darker side of the turian, a side Marcus didn't like at all. Tali had also wanted to give the turian a piece of her mind and he didn't stop her; she had every right.

The rest of the team remained mostly neutral about it, deciding to leave it to Marcus. They insisted on coming as escort however due to his injuries and incase Garrus got actively hostile, but Marcus was positive he could sort the turian out. After what felt like an entire hour of elevator riding, which he had the Alliance's crappy mechanics to thank for, he finally arrived in the cargo hold of the frigate, where he immediately found Garrus. The turian's head snapped towards the elevator and growled before turning back to his console.

The turian, upon escaping the Fedele, had escaped Kaidan's grip and stormed down the flight deck, disappearing down the stairs a short while after. Marcus, without slowing down, entered a brisk pace and approached the turian.

"Garrus, we need to talk." Marcus stated, stopping next to the turian, who didn't turn to acknowledge him. Tali stopped a couple of meters away, crossing her arms. The rest of the squad stood at the ready, Wrex simply didn't care about looking good and had his Solokov lowered on the turian's torso.

When the turian didn't answer he repeated himself. Still no answer. Instead of repeating himself, he placed a hand on the turian's shoulder and this time, the turian did respond. His head snapped towards Marcus, a look of pure fury on his face.

"HE WAS MINE!" Garrus hissed, trying to hook the spectre in the face, but he was an N7. Marcus saw the blow coming and immediately ducked to avoid the attack, immediately countering the marksman's second attempt with a left block.

"You let your own revenge get a hold of you! It blinded your judgment!" Marcus responded, his voice nowhere near the level Garrus' had been.

"He was my responsibility! I had him! I could have ended him! But of course, the quarian's life was more important than that sick piece of shit!" Garrus growled, letting his hand fall to his side as he backed away, his posture hostile. Marcus reciprocated the gesture and also backed off.

"Don't you blame Tali! She did nothing wrong! Besides, Saleon is dead! He can't hurt anyone anymore! Why does it matter who killed him as long as we killed him!?" Marcus snapped.

"BECAUSE HE WAS MINE! My mistake! My responsiblity! He was a mistake I needed to fix! And you killed him! You destroyed the one chance I had to redeem myself!" Garrus shot back, stepping forward to put emphasis on his statement. Marcus copied him movement for movement but exaggerated, moving until his face was inches from the turian's.

"This wasn't just about putting down a criminal, this was about your own personal revenge. Selfish." Marcus hissed in the turian's face, and Garrus finally took the hint. But that didn't mean he wasn't as vehement.

"Of course it was! For years I was haunted by own failure to stop that bastard! I swore that I would find him and put a bullet between his eyes! When Bailey sent me the information on him, I thought to myself that I could finally fix it! But then Saleon caught Tali and I had him in my sights! But you had to disarm me! And then YOU killed him! You destroyed my one chance to redeem myself!" Garrus shouted back.

"So all this had to do with was your own personal redemption! You didn't care whether he was a criminal or not!" Marcus responded.

"He was mine! My responsibility!" Garrus practically roared.

"So you keep saying! But in the end, if you kill someone because you find pleasure out of it, you're no better than the criminal you tried to kill!" Marcus shouted back and that got the turian. He opened his mandibles to retort, but found himself lost for words. He had nothing to say to counter the human's argument. Garrus hated to admit it, but Shepard had a point. What was the point of fighting an enemy when you're general feelings about killing them were the same?

Either way, he continued to bleed himself dry, "I could have shot him...ended it all..." Garrus said with less incentive, less conviction, and more defeat.

"Could have, but luckily I stopped you from killing a squadmate. I can understand wanting to kill Saleon, but sacrificing a squadmate without any hesitation? Why didn't you look for another way to resolve it? Another way that preferably didn't involve almost blasting her mask off?" Marcus asked, pointing at the angry quarian behind him, who had been watching the spectre the entire time.

"I didn't think, I just reacted!" Garrus shot back.

"And actions like that get people killed. Innocent people. Someday Garrus, you're going to be in command of your own ship, your own people, your own squad. Someday you're going to have to make a difficult decision, ones that will possibly involve letting the bad guys live so innocents can live." Marcus said with a low voice, not shouting or whispering.

Garrus simply sighed and backed into the Mako, sliding to sit on the ground. Marcus turned to his squad and nodded, telling them they could leave. Without hesitation, the team split up and left, Kaidan taking the elevator up while Ashley returned to her armoury, and Wrex to his little hidey hole. Tali hesitated for a moment before taking off down to engineering.

Turning back to Garrus he sighed and crouched next to the turian.

"But how would I live with myself, knowing I let bad people get away?" Garrus asked noone, but it was obviously he had directed the question at Marcus. Marcus looked at the ground and shook his head, looking back up as he answered.

"Sometimes you've got to put personal feelings aside to get the job done. You can't gamble people's lives based on your own personal feelings," Marcus paused for a moment before continuing, "I was like you once, young and naive and so full of myself, that I didn't know what I was doing. I was selfish, self-centered and full of ego and did alot of stupid...but then Anderson came along, and he opened my eyes." Marcus finished with a smile on his face and Garrus raised a brow.

"What did he do?" Garrus asked.

"He showed me that in the military, it isn't about personal opinions or decisions, it's about doing what's right, and usually the easiest choice isn't the right one. Life isn't perfect, I know I've had to make some really tough decisions, ones that will probably live with me forever. Like on Torfan..." Marcus said, his head drooping.

"What happened on Torfan?" Garrus asked.

"It was just after the Battle of Elysium. The Alliance launched a counterattack on the batarian colony of Torfan. Our orders were to land, secure the batarian defenses and allow the Second Fleet to move in and cripple the batarian fleet. Easier said than done," Marcus began, "But shit went downhill from the get go. Our Grizzly was shot up and I was forced to leave some wounded soldiers behind so I could save my team."

"But that wasn't the worst of it. No, the worst part came when we had breached the enemy perimeter but had gotten pinned behind a turned over vehicle. There was nowhere else to go..."

"I still remember it like it happened yesterday."

**{Loading...}**

_September 11, 2176_

_0000000000000000000...Dating Error. Chrono Damage Sustained. Time Stamped Unknown._

_Inner Perimeter, Main Compound, Batarian Outpost, Torfan. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Lieutenant Sarann Francis, Chief Warrant Officer Nathan Montgomery._

Gunfire rained all over. Exploding shells impacted the dirt plains of Torfan, shooting fragments up and over the small squad as they tried desperately to keep away from the bullets. It was total chaos; chunks of bone and flesh flew all over as the batarian's brutal weapons ripped charging alliance marines apart, leaving the battlefield a bloody mess.

The bunker he had been trying to take out had been more heavily fortified than he thought; a HMG shredding them on sight. Marcus screamed in pain as Sarann and Nathan pulled him into cover, his armor riddled with bullets and caked with his own blood. Thanks to his heavy armor, it had taken most of the rounds, but he had still been severely injured. The commander was forced to watch as another marine tried to make a run for it, but was torn apart, screaming in agony.

"Fucking Kyle, he deliberately lead us here than son of a bitch!" Nathan spat as he leaned Marcus against an overturned grizzly.

"The retard is a gutless coward and doesn't have any balls. Better to send the meat in," Sarann deadpanned, "When I get out of this though, I'm going to kick his ass." Marcus chuckled at Sarann's audacity and slapped the man on the shoulder. Sarann simply gave him a fake smile as he rolled over to his left and took position behind the grizzly, slightly raising himself so he could position his sniper rifle on the vehicle's top.

Marcus felt a cool sensation drift down his chest as he turned to see Nathan applying medi-gel to his wounds. The injectors on the armor had been blown to bits, leaving manual injection the only option. Marcus nodded his thanks to the marine, who began typing into his omni-tool once more.

"Damn it Thomas, why did you have to play hero." Nathan muttered under his breath as he pulled out a tech grenade and tossed it at the bunker as a distraction. It did little damage, but it at least allowed some surviving marines time to find cover.

Marcus nodded in agreement. The soldier had sacrificed his life to give them time to advance and shortly after had disappeared in an explosion. When the dust had cleared, there was nothing left of the marine to identify whether he was dead or not. The former was so much more likely that it made him sick to the stomach. So much sacrifice, and for what? Everyone in his squad from Elysium was dead now except Nathan and Sarann.

"And we've basically made ourselves cornered. That turret is automated and targets vibrations. We so much as move and it fires, cover or not. Unless we get air support, which I doubt Kyle is going to put on loan, we're stuck here and pretty much screwed." Sarann declared, the pounding sound of his sniper rifle going off as he targetted some unseeable target.

Marcus decided that just lounging around wouldn't benefit the team in any form, so he pushed himself off and ignored the stinging pain in his chest, grabbing his lancer assault rifle on his way over to Sarann's position. Sarann simply nodded at him once before firing another shot. Marcus concentrated as much as he could on bringing his biotics to bare, managing to kill a hiding batarian who had attempted to snipe Sarann.

Marcus let a sadistic smile cross his features as he gave more marines covering fire, firing layer after layer of gunfire upon the batarian position while hiding behind the grizzly in such a way it made it impossible for the automated turret to hit him. His successful advantage was short lived however when a batarian rocket trooper hit his cover and forced him to fall back into safety.

"We can't keep this up!" Nathan shouted over the roar of gunfire as he raised his pistol back over the cover and continued firing blind shots at the enemy positions. It was useless, they were simply too well entrenched.

Marcus nodded his acknowledgement of the soldier's statement as he primed one last grenade and threw it over his cover, losing his smile as soon as he heard the explosion go off, the screams of batarian soldier's being blasted apart filling his eardrums. It wasn't a pleasant sound.

The gunfire continued as alliance marines, in foolish bravado, attempted to cover their comrade's advance by charging straight at the enemy entrenchment, earning themselves a belly full of bullets for their trouble. It was a massacre, just like on Elysium. This counterattack wasn't going any better than that very invasion, and they were only losing more and more troops.

"Tango, left flank, heavy!" Sarann growled through gritted teeth, too concentrated on the advancing batarians to turn around. Marcus acknowledged the warning and turned around, emptying round after round into a batarian rocket soldier, who quickly fell over dead from lack of shielding and Marcus' stream of bullets. The trooper was quickly replaced with three more however, and one managed to fire a rocket on their position.

Marcus raised his biotic barrier immediately, easily blocking the shot and then using the barrier as a shockwave as he pushed it forward, knocking the hostile soldiers on their backs as he pounded bullets into their vulnerable forms. Any batarian with brains would understand that coming that way guaranteed death.

Marcus cursed as his lancer rifle began beeping to register it has overheated and he tossed it aside, pulling out his executioner shotgun and taking position next to Sarann who was still pumping round after round into the batarian soldiers.

"Come on, shit for brains! One by one, you fall to MY bullets! Let it be known that Sarann Francis, the pessimistic lord killed many batarian lives today!" Sarann roared over the battlefield, daring the enemy to charge him. That they did, and right into the marine's awaiting sniper bullets.

"Careful, Francis, you might piss them off." Marcus chuckled, trying to add some humor to their FUBAR predicament.

"Do you know who I am? I'm Sarann Francis. I live to piss people off. I know I'm a failure when I don't." Sarann countered, not missing a beat.

"You know, sniper rifles are still pretty shit compared to shotguns." Marcus teased.

"Just because you can't handle a sniper scope doesn't make the weapon shit," Sarann retorted, "With a good wielder and a good spotter, this sniper rifle can easily become the literal definition of Zeus."

"Zeus? Really, Taffy?" Marcus asked in mock disgust, using the man's nickname.

"What would you prefer 'Sexy?'" Sarann shot back with a grin.

"Point taken." Marcus responded simply as he prepared to unleash another barrage of biotics upon the batarians. Before he could however, a loud voice sounded over the comm and all gunfire stopped as they listened to the voice; the gruff, but very batarian voice.

"Humans, surrender now and this bloodshed can end. Tell your commanding officer to step forward." The voice he recognized as the batarian's battalion commander responded. The man was a terrorist, one that needed to die.

"I'm the commanding officer, and I say fuck you blink!" Marcus spat.

"Pathetic human, you do realize you're outnumbered, don't you? You can't win." The batarian responded to the soldier's outburst.

"We're human; and humans don't surrender no matter how suicidal the odds are. You won't let us surrender, you'll just gun us down as soon as we reveal ourselves. You can take your surrender and shove it up your ass! Once I'm done here, I'm coming for you asshole!" Marcus shouted back and for a second, there was silence. A silence that didn't last long.

"So be it."

Marcus cringed as he heard the sounds of missiles being launched; then he saw them as yellow streaks crossing the sky towards them, but at a speed that was too fast for them to avoid in time. Marcus had already been moving, but Sarann and Nathan weren't quick enough.

"Incoming-" Nathan began shouting, but was cut off as the missiles impacted the overturned vehicle, blinding the commander's vision as it went bright yellow, his body being yanked from the ground and thrown into the air like a rag doll. The explosion was deafening, his eardrums ringing from the bang. Body finally found ground as he fell face first, his nose broken, bloody flowing steadily. The gunfire completely ceased. He could only just hear the batarian's voice once again.

"Find them. Kill any survivors."

Marcus turned on the ground to survey the damage around him and gently lifted himself up, finding himself without a shotgun. He rushed back over to the wreckage only to find the discarded helmet of Nathan Montgomery, blood soaking the helmet's insides. Marcus felt himself cringe as he picked it up and the dogtags with it. He wanted to ignore the pain he felt, but there was no avoiding it.

Nathan was dead, and his body was nowhere to be found.

Marcus dropped the helmet as he heard pained moaning and he rushed over to the source; the grizzly.

"Shep-ard..." Came a gurgled, pained voice. It was one he recognized all too well. But this tone wasn't joking. This one was dying. Marcus finally reached the grizzly to find it turned over the impact of the missiles, and trapped under it, his entire lower torso stuck under the vehicle's bulk, was Sarann.

Marcus rushed over to the still live form of the marine, and Sarann looked up at his commander.

"Oh fuck...this isn't how I planned to die...hell, I thought I'd die of ice cream, not this..." Sarann tried to joke, but only a gurgle of blood from his mouth met his troubles. The marine went into a coughing fit. Marcus hated to admit it, but Sarann was too far gone, too badly injured. He wasn't going to make it. But he sure would make every batarian bastard in that outpost pay for it.

"You did well, Taffy, you did good. I can imagine Roshia would have some kind of snarky comment to say right about now..." Marcus trailed off, that memory bringing tears to his eyes.

"And I'd always be the one to end it. We made a good team, didn't we?" Sarann asked and Marcus smiled, nodding at the memory of Epsilon squad. A memory that was painful and full of bliss as well.

"You'd better get going, the batarian patrols will be here any seco-" Sarann suddenly stopped and fell silent. Marcus stopped smiling and shook the marine's head, but when he saw he didn't move he quickly checked his pulse. There was none. Marcus sighed as he closed the eyes of the last memeber of Epsilon squad. Marcus was the only one left, the only one left to continue the mission. He took Sarann's armageddon shotgun, checking to make sure the mass accellerator was intact before moving ahead.

He watched as Alliance Mantis A-67 gunships appeared overhead, raining fury upon the batarian outpost. Marcus couldn't control his outburst as he shouted at the pilots up above.

"Couldn't come sooner could you! Fuck you Kyle, you fucking coward!" He didn't even give the gunships a second glance as he rushed inside the complex, gunning down every batarian guard he found. The mercenaries barely stood a chance and with the alliance gunships and reinforcements pounding the exterior defenses, it was only a matter of time before Torfan fell.

But the price had been too high. And these batarians would feel his vengeance.

It wasn't long before Marcus arrived in the middle of the facility. It was a dirty room with grime covering the walls with a large overhead computer. All around the room were the forms of numerous human hostages, all wrapped in C8 charges, set to detonate to his proximity. A single console lay infront of him, the only way to shut off the charges. The batarian leader's face appeared on screen.

"You're tough human, I'll give you that." The batarian said with a sneer.

"Give me a name, you coward." Marcus spat at the terminal.

"You first, human. That or I blow these humans into tiny atoms." The batarian stated, holding up a detonator as he motioned to the hostages. Marcus was unable to keep the rage out of his voice.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Shepard, and I will find you and kill you." Marcus grumbled.

"Battalion Regent Balak Uhtero. I think we will meet again, Shepard...then you can decide. Until then, I think this is goodbye."

"Where the fuck do you think-" Marcus didn't even get to finish as the batarian named Balak snarled.

"You have two options; you can after me and kill me, but I will set the detonator and kill everyone on these hostages. Or...you can access that console and release the hostages, but by the time you do, I'll be long gone." Balak looked pretty smug. Marcus cursed at Balak inside. _Fucking Batarian._

"Fine. You get to live this time, but next time you won't be so lucky." Marcus spat.

"We'll see. Goodbye...commander." Balak said, smiling as the screen disappeared. Marcus got to work on disarming the explosives and by the time he was finished, he was being swarmed by hostages who were thanking him and calling him a hero. _Hero. Hero. Hero. Hero. Hero. Hero. Hero. Hero. _The words were torture.

He simply sent his fist diving into the console in a fit of rage, and the room went silent.

Silent enough to hear the man they called a hero, sobbing.

**{Loading...}**

_June 28, 2183_

_1517 hours. _

_Cargo Hold, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Armstrong Cluster. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Marksman Garrus Vakarian._

By the time Marcus had finished telling the story, both men had gone silent. Garrus was simply lost for words while Marcus was visibly saddened by the retelling. They were events the spectre had dug deep into his soul for seven years. Seven years of peace, but free of the horrible memories of exactly what happened on the batarian colony. Eventually, Garrus spoke up, although reluctantly.

"Spirits, I didn't-I didn't know. I...never realized..." Garrus was lost for words.

"And that's why I couldn't let it happen again. In my mind Tali was the hostage and Saleon was Balak. I hated the very thought of letting that sicko escape, but I couldn't let Tali die just because you were too drunk on vengeance to think of anything else." Marcus explained.

"I can understand now, but I still feel...bad for not being the one to put him down." Garrus informed the spectre, and the human simply slapped the turian on his armoured back.

"Don't let it bother you. Saleon is dead; the sicko doctor you've hunted for years is finally no longer a danger to the galactic community. Just let it go. Everybody has their own inner demons, and I know I haven't cleansened all of them, it just takes time to get rid of them. Just remember that you're not the only one with dilemmas. So are we okay?" Marcus asked, looking the turian directly in the eyes.

"I...I think it'll take time, but I'll get over it. You've taught me a valuable lesson and I won't forget it. I will make you proud." Garrus stated.

"Don't make me proud...make yourself proud." Marcus stated and Garrus simply smiled as the spectre stood up and then helped him up.

"So...that shotgun you gave Tali...that used to be your...friend's?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah...I haven't trusted anyone with it until now. With Tali I just feel like I can trust her, like this thing in the back of my head is telling me she can be trusted. Besides, it only brings back pain, and I'd rather Tali have it." Marcus declared.

"Fair enough. She seems the trustworthy type." Garrus said, a smile on his mandibles.

"She certainly does. If you need anything else just call me, just be ready when we jump onto Casbin." Marcus ordered, moving towards the elevator as he spoke. Garrus simply nodded his head at the human as he left, the N7 standing into the elevator just as Garrus spoke.

"Shepard?"

"Yes, Garrus?"

"Thanks. I need some sense knocked into me."

"Anytime, friend." With that, the elevator door slid closed infront of him and he began his ascent to the Crew Deck. The spectre's words rolled in the turian's mind as he turned back to his console. _Friend. Friend. Ha. _

**{Loading...}**

_June 28, 2183_

_1541 hours._

_'Humanity's Sanctum', Upper Facilty, Cronos Station, Anadius System. _

_Eden Prime War._

_The Illusive Man, First Lieutenant Miranda Lawson._

"Report, Miss Lawson."

Miranda's form seemed to glide across the room as he moved towards the Illusive Man's seat, the room's orange holoscreen's color's reflecting off her white uniform. When the operative finally arrived at the position of Cerberus' leader, she passed a datapad into the man's awaiting hands, quickly stepping away to give him room to read. She began to give him a summary of the information.

"Project: Totem was a failure sir. All rachni test subjects have been recorded as deceased upon the expiration of the MSV Fedele's IFF. All Cerberus units on site have been terminated by hostile Alliance forces deployed by an Alliance Normandy-Class stealth frigate. All vessels on site also have been nullified, along with Doctor Untaav Heart. We're still trying to identify the vessel involved." Miranda finished.

"It was the Normandy. Shepard's ship." The lllusive Man stated a matter-of-factly, handing the datapad back to a stunned Miranda.

"How can you be so sure, sir?" Miranda asked and Illusive simply stopped to smoke his cigar.

"It's all in the reports. The casualty reports, the termination of all rachni test subjects and Saleon's death. Do your research Miss Lawson. What Stealth frigate stumbles upon a insignificant merchant freighter in a random part of space that just happens to hold an old time enemy of Shepard's crew? And just happens to have a team capable of taking out an entire platoon of Cerberus commandos?" Illusive finished analyzing and even the agent had to admit that the man had his facts in line.

"Why would he attack us though? I thought he wanted to protect humanity." Miranda asked, confused by the so-called 'humanity's protector's' actions.

"He's never been a fan of our MO. He's always been a 'humanity and aliens are equals' kind of man, and I can respect his morals, but his methods are pathetic and quite foolish to say the least. Hopefully, we can open his eyes to the bigger picture. Let him see what Cerberus is really about." Illusive pondered aloud.

"But why would he listen to an organization he's officially labelled as terrorists?" Miranda asked again, and the Illusive Man was getting sick of her constant questions.

"Because, Miss Lawson, we show him that we can do good things. Begin preparations for Operation: Black Light and prepare Operative Taylor for departure. It's time we aided Shepard in his fight against Saren." The man finished, a smile crossing his features as he turned back to his cigar and placed it in the ash tray.

"Starting with a little place called Noveria."

**"Torfan was never mentioned on Shepard's dossier."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"And who would want to record that? It was stuff that was meant to be off the record, let's say, a black operations mission. Even the Council wasn't aware of it. The Alliance simply secretly sanctioned it. The political backlash would have been severe if the Council found out, but they weren't going to sit around and let the batarians bomb our colonies."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"And he just trusted Tali with his deceased friend's shotgun?" **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Like, I said it was like a bond of trust. A trust that would eventually become something more..."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**Scarab = Wrex.**

**Angel = Tali.**

**Leonidas = Shepard.**

**Raptor = Garrus.**

**Seeker = Liara.**

**Delta = Ashley.**

**Sentinel = Kaidan.**


	18. Chapter 15 Geth, More Geth, and Geth?

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN:**

**GETH, MORE GETH, AND EVEN MORE GETH**

_June 29, 2183_

_2243 hours. _

_*UNDESIGNATED LANDING ZONE*, Northern Hemisphere, Casbin._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Armstrong Cluster._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

"I really hate these aerial drops!" Tali screamed over the roar of Casbin's freezing winds and Marcus simply laughed loudly at the quarian's discomfort. Garrus and Wrex didn't mind the shaking vehicle as usual while Ashley held on for dear life and Kaidan laughed at Liara, who was now the newbie in the situation. Marcus simply grinned widely as the quarian sitting next to him held on to her harness.

The forward viewport of the Mako was open to allow them a view of the outside area and all they could see was a neverending expanse of green grass and moss mixed with the brownish, dirt covered mountains. The planet was barren and silent, not a single form of life to be seen within their immediate area.

The Mako continued to glide through the air until it's passengers heard the thrusters activate it and that was followed by the crash of the Mako hitting the ground. The vehicle continued rolling forward until finally stopping at the middle of the one kilometer long clearing, surrounded by monolithic mountains.

Marcus gorged himself in the landscape until finally turning his head to look at the minimap. Upon entering the planet's proximity, the VI had run a deep-layered scan and uploaded a digital minimap to and in the place of the Mako's compass. According to the data sent, the geth base was located in an area inbetween a large outcrop of mountains; very rugged terrain for the Mako to traverse.

"Shepard, remind me again why an entire team is needed on what's supposed to be a vehicular mission? Wouldn't you just need a gunner, Tali and you to do this?" Kaidan asked from the back, able to finally contain his laughter at the look of pure shock on Liara's face.

"Believe it or not, the Mako isn't unstoppable. If this vehicle gets disabled and we're surrounded by a company of geth soldiers, I'd rather not be a three-man squad. Chances are we'd be dead pretty quickly. This way we have a chance of fighting them off if that happens." Marcus responded, moving the Mako forward and into the mountainous area.

The journey towards the geth outpost, which was apparently 6 klicks ahead, was long and tedious, with the mountains causing significant problems for the alliance vehicle. Of course, it could climb them easily, it was the bumps that were irritating and taxing. Conversation was made in the vehicle, but most of it was about the upcoming assault on the geth base. There were even murmurs that the Alliance might actually invade the Perseus Veil, but the liklihood of that happening was low. If they could push the geth back significantly, maybe.

Ashley hadn't taken the gunner seat while Tali occupied her usual seating next to him in the engineering compartment. The room was just brimming with conversation, but Marcus didn't feel like joining in, and neither did Tali. Both were focusing on their tasks, work being something both shared mutually. Tali's little three fingered hands danced over the control while Marcus simply drove the alliance tank onward and towards the outpost.

Finally, he broke the silence between them to begin conversation.

"How's engineering? Adams been treating you well?" Marcus asked the quarian. She answered, but didn't turn to look at him like she usually did.

"Everything's fine. The crew is really friendly to me, except maybe Pressly and Chief Williams is still very cautious around me, but Adams really likes me. I can tell. He gives me as much of the heavy work as he can, he even gives me access to classified sections of the ship." Tali replied.

"It's good to hear that you're getting along with us humans. Although, you never really told me what a quarian was doing away from the migrant fleet. Your people are usually very solitary from what I heard; prefer to seclude yourselves." Marcus trivialized, now very happy to have gotten a conversation going. It at least broke the awkward tension between them.

"I'm on my rite of passage called a pilgrimage. Every time a quarian reaches maturity, usually at age nineteen, we under go pilgrimage training to help us survive in the galaxy and get private classes in school. By the time we're deemed ready, which was in my case was four years later, we head out. We leave the fleet and don't come back until we prove our worth." Tali answered cooly.

"How do you do that?" Marcus asked.

"We bring back something to the fleet that can help in its continued survival. It can be a ship, engine part, data, food, anything that can help us live and sustain our home. When we come back, we provide the resource to the captain of the ship we wish to join; in my case, I want to join the crew of the Neema, captained by Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema." Tali responded, her head now turned towards him.

"Admiral? You're saying a politician can command a vessel?" Marcus responded, already knowing about the quarian Admiralty Board. They were one of two quarian political powers; the admirals dealt with military affairs, while the Conclave dealt with quarian democracy as a whole. Tali's father was the head of the Admiralty board, so she was pretty popular on the flotilla.

"Quarian politicians are different from the usual ones you face Shepard," Tali responded, a smile hidden in her voice, "Yes, admirals always have a ship of their own to command, my father commands a ship called the Huzzi, while my auntie Raan commands the Tonbay. I want to join the Neema, so when I find something of worth, I'll take it to Gerrel and present. I just hope whatever I find he finds is nessacary..." Tali trailed off.

"Why? Doesn't he accept it, or is there some kind of ritual?" Marcus asked.

"There's a ritual, of sorts, but yes, it is an ability a captain has. Captain's are the conclave of their ship, even admirals or conclave members can't override their authority. Their ship is their child, and they are the parent. It is extremely rare, but captains can reject gifts they deem not good enough and the pilgrim would have to find another, poorly looked after, ship to join. Like I said, unlikely, but with Gerrel...he's very strict. He's rejected many gifts already."

"I'm sure you'll find something of worth and if you need help finding one, I can help. You've got yourself a friend here. Besides, wouldn't mind if you joined the Normandy..." Marcus said with suggestiveness hidden all over his tone.

"It's tempting, but it wouldn't work. The Normandy isn't registered or recognized as a quarian vessel, and therefore I can't officially join it, and as much as I appreciate the help, I have to complete my pilgrimage on my own. I can't prove my worth if someone does it for me."

"Not for you, but with you," Marcus answers simply, going back to driving and that left Tali some food for thought, "And it just occurs to me you're joining the Neema, not the Huzzi. Why not join a ship that your father is on?"

"Because me and my father...we're not on good terms." Tali answered, his voice low. _Ah yes father, not on good terms. Can't even tell your daughter you love her, all you do is 'do this, do that.' I guess I just don't matter. What a fer'tet. _

"Oh...I see. Family matters. If you don't want to talk about it that's fine, we can talk about something else." Marcus answered, noticing that it was pretty clear where Tali and her father stood. _What about her mother?_

"What about your mother?" Marcus asked and that caused Tali to stop what she was doing.

"She's been...claimed by the Ancestors..." Tali answered, her voice full of melancholy. She really missed Meru, and she had almost blamed Shepard for bringing it up. It wasn't his fault, he didn't know.

"What do you mean by...oh..." Marcus began but trailed off as he realized what the quarian meant. Her mother was dead. Marcus could say he knew how she felt; his father was dead and all he had left was his mother. But his mother talked to him regularly via extranet; Tali's father seemed to not talk to Tali at all. So in essence, Tali had no family yet. That was an experience noone deserved.

The rest of the ride was done in silence, no words exchanged between the two. There was nothing to say. Tali simply typed away at her console, occasionally glancing over at Shepard, but quickly detracting her look. Liara had taken Shepard's attention and the quarian had lost her chance. No point in dragging it out. _Friends. We're friends. Good friends. That's all. Nothing more._

After what felt like an eternity of running system checks, the Mako finally came to a stop, Marcus turning to address the team.

"Okay people, the geth outpost is just over this ridge. Keep it clean and simple. Kaidan, take your gear, get outside and give us a tactical analysis. Keep contact via comm." Marcus ordered, turning back to his terminal as Kaidan nodded his acknoledgement, grabbing his helmet and latching it on as he opened the hatch and jumped outside.

"This is Sentinel, I'm outside, approaching hill crest. Uploading HUD stream now." Kaidan reported through the comm and the marine's HUD appeared on the screen as he quickly approached the hill's ridge.

Marcus raised a brow as the geth outpost came into visual range. It was the ideal terrian to place it; mountains flanked it from all sides, which meant it was hidden and any ground troops assaulting the base would be destroyed if geth air support arrived. It was advantageous. The design of the outpost was odd however, reminding him of a medieval castle.

The base was off the usual sleek and bug-like geth architecture, with large walls and what looked like seven towers or 'turrets' poking out from the walls, each with geth snipers or rocket troopers perched inside, defending the base. And not too far away, was a geth dropship. The base looked lightly defended, as snipers wouldn't do much against a Mako, so only the rocket troopers were a threat. And the dropship.

"Copy Sentinel, visual confirmation of ground targets is confirmed. Double back here ASAP and get seated. We're about to bring the pain, Leonidas out." Marcus stated through the comm and Kaidan simply nodded, the HUD's connection being cut as he returned to the Mako. Once safely in the Mako and latched in, Marcus acellerated the Mako forward and straight down the hill.

"Ashley, ground targets, six snipers, four rocket troopers. Prioritize firing solutions and unleash hell. I'll bring us down the center, cut through the exterior defenses." Marcus informed the marine and she shouted her acknowledgement, bring the Mako's main gun to bear on the geth platforms who only now just affirmed their presence and opened fire; red lines of bullet fire and rockets streaking across the air towards them, hitting the hill uselessly as they sped past.

"Is it just me Shepard, or do you have an affinity for terrible driving!" Garrus shouted over the sound of the Mako's gun firing, the shot impacting a nearby tower and causing a sniper to be ripped apart before what's left of it is thrown into multiple directions.

"I like to call my driving professional!" Marcus retorted back.

"Only you, Shepard. Only you." Kaidan shouted his agreement with the turian and Marcus merely chuckled.

It wasn't long before the Mako finally impacted the ground surrounding the Mako and he acellerated forward to bring the vehicle into the middle of the small compound. The Mako's main gun continued to roar across the outpost, multiple geth falling victim to the unmerciful assault. The rocket troopers were pesky as they constantly bombarded the vehicle with missiles, but thanks to Tali's expertise the shields stayed strong long enough for Ashley to locate the attacker's and send them spiralling into death itself.

Within minutes, silence had covered the outpost. Nothing but destroyed towers and ripped apart geth platforms littered the area, the whirring of mechanical motors spreading throughout the outpost, but Ashley quickly put them out of their misery...but they couldn't feel pain so that probably wasn't a good analogy.

"That's the first outpost, just three more to go-" Garrus began but was cut off.

"No wait, I'm picking something up on radar. It's headed this way and it's coming in hard. Ashley, cover the skies. It's airborne." Marcus barked, pulling the vehicle into full reverse.

"The dropship?" Wrex asked in his usual gruff, unamused tone.

"What else could it be? It has to be for something moving at that speed." Marcus stated, and he was right. Geth fighters would move faster and a frigate slower. It was a geth dropship, and it was coming in with reinforcements and firepower to match.

The Mako quicky reversed up a road that was convieniently placed in the side of the mountain and moved up towards the top just as the dropship roared overhead and descended towards the base, the geth hybrid of a troop transport and a gunship unleashing high-velocity explosive missiles towards them. Luckily they hit the path ahead and exploded, but if eight of those hit, the Mako would be reduced to molten wreckage.

Finally at the top, Marcus brought the Mako into a turn that would allow them a direct approach towards the cliff edge they had surveyed from. It would allow them to hit the dropship from above and it's troops as it's main cannon was on the ventral part of the ship, not the dorsal. Once at the edge, Marcus tilted the Mako ever so slightly so as to give Ashley a clear shot. The dropship was ascending just as the Mako's main gun roared once again and fired, and explosive round impacting the dropship's armoured hull just as machine gun fire rained down on it.

The round hit home and it was made quickly evident that the dropship possessed no shields, as bits of armor plating flew off and bluish flames erupted from it's sleek build. They had hit the engine fuselage and now they had a weakness to exploit. However, the armor made it difficult to actually cause any really damage, so they had to call in the cavalry.

"Normandy, this is Leonidas. We have a hostile dropship attacking us with heavy armor plating. Requesting immediate COB (Close Orbital Bombardment) over? Uploading target coordinates. Confirmation on strike order acknowledgement." Marcus ordered.

"This is Normandy, solid copy. Bringing her down, single javelin-torpedo, coordinates affirmed. Five seconds out, standby." Joker answered and Marcus chuckled. Standby was basically the Alliance's version of putting you on hold.

The group watched as the dropship brought it's main gun to bare on the Mako and fired, a single explosive shell impacting the Mako's shields, causing the vehicle to rock. The second shot never came however as the roar, followed by the bluish ion light of the javelin assault torpedo streaked through the sky and smashed into the droship, incinerating it upon impact and sending the debris hurling into the ground below.

"Thanks Normandy, Leonidas out." Marcus said as he smiled at the glowing wreckage of the dropship and turned to see what had become of the geth stragglers.

The dropship had deployed a squad of shock troopers lead by a geth platform he hadn't seen before. It was huge, standing at 17 feet tall and much bigger juggernaut, with firepower to promote it's size. It held what looked to be a heavy geth weapon that he didn't recognize, while a pink combat drone, the same as Tali's expect for the color, flanked it. It's armor was crimson red and looked extremely thick and was most likely accompanied by shields. If the armatures were tanks, those ones were the heavies.

"A geth prime..." Tali muttered, "Many quarian marines had died fighting them on the battlefield and they've been told to be ferocious. It's main weapon fires high powered bolts that charge with electricity, doubling them as not only heavy ordnance, but as an EMP weapon. They have strong shields and thick armor and can deploy combat drones to assist them. They act as the commanding platform for a geth company, and rightly so. Even juggernauts pale in comparison."

"The ultimate killing machine. Spirits, I don't want to take those things on in close-quarters." Garrus commented.

"Luckily we have the Mako. Ashley, let's give Mister Prime a proper greeting." Marcus ordered with a smile and Ashley merely grinned back as she brought the gun to level with the prime's torso.

A single thump and an explosion later, the dust clears to reveal the prime still intact, with only it's shields gone. Aware of their location, the prime opens fire and a steady stream of blue orbs shoots towards them, hitting the vehicle's shields and draining them rapidly. Ashley continued to pop rounds into the prime until it gave a loud, ear-piercing, mechanical screech and exploded, leaving nothing left of the mighty geth platform. After clearing up the shock troopers, they called for pickup.

"Well, you learn something new, everyday." Kaidan commented, smiling.

"Those primes will be worthy opponents on the ground," Wrex grinned, "I can't wait to introduce them to Solokov."

"Noone will be facing those things upclose unless they think they can actually destroy it," Marcus declared, "I'm not losing my squad to those bloody tanks."

"Ah, Shepard, forgetting something? Krogan are living tanks." Garrus pointed out.

"And I bet primes can't regenerate." Wrex added.

"Actually, they're combat drones double as repair drones. If the prime is severely damaged, it can provide repairs to it during combat." Tali spoke up.

"Still wouldn't stand a chance." Wrex continued egotistically.

"Enough! I will decide who faces those tanks and with what! I'm not letting recklessness get my team killed! Is that perfectly clear?" Marcus barked and the krogan quickly nodded, smart enough not to risk the man's wrath. Even krogan knew their limits.

"Good," Marcus replied before turning back to his terminal and keying the comm, "Joker! Status on pickup?"

"There's a pickup? I'm sorry, I was too busy playing galaxy of fantasy while you played tag with the friendly geth down there." Joker responded in his generic joking tone.

"Joker..." Marcus said with just enough irritation to get the pilot's attention.

"Okay, okay. ETA is a couple of seconds. If you have any perception of time, you know that's damn quick. Joker out." Joker declared before cutting the comm, Marcus simply shaking his head at the pilot's antics, the Normandy's roaring engines could be heard outside as he lay back and let the Normandy pick them up.

_Just three more to go. So the tedious work begins..._

**{Loading...}**

_June 30, 2183_

_0955 hours. _

_Geth Outpost, Southern Hemisphere, Rayingri._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Armstrong Cluster._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus gave a sigh of relief as the last geth trooper fell into the sights of his punisher sniper rifle and he pulled the trigger, the round smashing clean through the platform's optics and leaving it a mangled mess as it fell to the ground, destroyed. After getting confirmation that all targets had been neatralized, he left his cover and got up, heading over to their Mako on the edge of the outpost, followed by his team.

"That's the last base, Shepard, I guess that means we've foiled Saren and the geth's plans once again." Garrus comment snarkily, moving to stand next to Marcus as the rest of the team arrived at the Mako.

"I'm not so sure about that. When we got to this base, I found a signal transmitting from the base and into the cluster, and it wasn't transmitting to any the four planets we just cleared." Tali added, her omnitool up and running as she arrived.

"What do you think, Tali?" Marcus asked the quarian, leaning on the Mako.

"I think these outposts we took out were merely subbases. I think the main base of operations is still functional and located somewhere in this cluster." Tali chirped.

"Can you trace the signal?" Marcus asked.

"I already did. The signal terminates in the Grissom System on the moon Solcrum which orbits the planet Notanban. If my guess is correct, this base is the control base and Saren plans to use it as a base to refuel his ships. One of his frigates is already parked there and according to the geth their fleet will return in three days."

"We'll be long gone by then. Radio the Normandy for pickup and I'll have Joker plot a course for Solcrum. It's time to end this invasion right now." Marcus stated.

"Or we'll all end up paying for it."

**{Loading...}**

_June 30, 2183_

_1348 hours. _

_Geth Control Post Outer Perimeter, Solcrum, Moon of Notanban._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Armstrong Cluster._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

"Well, there it is. And how convienient, two colossi. This is going to be fun." Ashley declared sarcastically but Marcus merely ignored her as he surveyed the base. She was right though, the defenses were heavy. He could see the parked frigate just outside, easily eclipsing the main building which was surrounded by huge steel piping that was being constructed for the base's fuel depot.

Flanking the main building, which appeared to be cubish in shape but also extremely appeasing of geth aesthetics, was two Geth Colossi, both reared in defensive positions and accompanied by a patrolling company of geth troopers and a geth prime unit. Add the new heavy turrets on the top of the building and the amount of geth reinforcements on that frigate, and you could say it was suicide to storm that base.

But Marcus had a plan. He always did. He was not going to have another Torfan.

"I know it looks suicidal, but I've got an idea. Garrus, I want you to set your armor for EVA and take position on this hill and lay down sniper fire. The rest of us will move in with the Mako and chip away at that company as we approach. Once close enough, I'll ram the prime while the gunner puts a nice hole through its optics. Then we fall back." Marcus explained.

"What then? We still have at least a platoon of geth left, not to mention those damn Colossi." Ashley asked.

"We'll wing it," Marcus declared and the aliens of the group gave him confused looks as he chuckles, "We'll improvise. Look, the only other way to do this is to chicken out. But we can't. If we let the geth build fortifications in this system, they will invade. And with a ship like Sovereign leading them, they'll be unstoppable. We must stop them here." Marcus informed them before looking back at Garrus, "You ready?"

The turian already had his black-visored helmet on and simply gave him a three-taloned thumbs up, "Good to go. I'll do what I can from here. Just try not to die. I'm more worried about your driving getting these guys killed than the geth." Garrus commented sarcastically before popping the hatch and stepping out into the airless, non-existent atmosphere of Solcrum, hatch closing behind him.

"The loyalty I inspire..." Marcus mumbled, but Liara heard him.

"Don't worry, I think your driving isn't that bad." Liara tried to sound supportive, but sucked as her sentence ended with a half-laugh.

"No, it would give a bull pause." Kaidan stated.

"Or probably cause the geth to roll out speeding fines." Ashley added, grinning.

"Or it would end up with all of us dying because he didn't slow down." Tali chirped.

"Come on! My driving isn't that bad!" Marcus shouted as he moved the Mako forward and down the hill, moving towards the geth base.

"No, it's worse," Wrex declared, "I've seen krogan drive tomkah's better than you, Shepard. No offense."

"Comparing me to a krogan? Oh, now it's personal." Marcus declared with mock anger and everybody laughed as they slowly approached.

"Okay company of speeding cameras up ahead." Marcus stated, smiling at the joke he had pointed at Ashley and she laughed loudly as she opened fire, taking the enemy by surprise. Within seconds she had thinned the geth ranks considerably, especially due to Garrus' well-timed sniper shots.

Thinning the enemy down to a squad sized unit, which was more dead geth than they expected, the Mako finally reached the geth and rammed into the geth prime just as it was firing it's cannon, the Mako smashing the helpless platform into the geth base's walls, leaving a considerable dent in it's torso as it tried to push the Mako off of it, but to no avail. Without hesitation, Ashley ripped into its optics with the HMG, leaving it a mangled mess of armor and processing units.

With the main plan over with, Marcus began to back the Mako up when he remembered something. The colossi! As if to punish him for forgetting, he felt a siege pulse impact the Mako's left hull, causing the shields to flutter and die as Tali scrambled to get them operable again. All the while Marcus continued to reverse the Mako, the geth squad and numerous Colossi trying to kill him. Even the turrets were trailing him.

The troopers were quickly dealt with thanks to Garrus' precision scoping and Ashley controlling the main gun, but that didn't last long when the second colossus opened fire, narrowly missing them again as the vehicle spun around and sped away. Marcus winced in pain as the wound in his arm sprung up again. He remembered how the pain he was suffering had kept Tali from becoming a gory salad.

He could hear Ashley retaliating with the main gun, but the shots bounced uselessly off the Colossi's shields and they were forced into full retreat.

"Okay, time to rethink this." Marcus declared, bringing the vehicle to a full stop now that he was certain they were out of range of the Colossi.

"We don't have the firepower to deal with two Colossi. Or two heavy missile turrets." Ashley declared and everyone nodded as Marcus formed a mental plan.

"What we need to is two Makos, pity we don't _have _two Makos so we'll have to make do at present." Kaidan pointed out.

Tali mused. _Two Makos...two Makos...two Makos! That's it!_

"Actually, we do. Technically." Tali spoke up, and everyone turned to her as if she was mad.

"We don't have two Makos, quarian. Full stop." Ashley stated vehemently.

"Like I said, not technically. But...we can create one." Tali added.

"We don't have the parts Tali, what are you talking about?" Marcus responded. Tali simply sighed as she found how frustrating this was to explain.

"No...but if we made it virtually...," Tali began, "Geth can't be hacked; they're simply too advanced, but individual sections can be hacked and the one we want is the photosynthesizing unit in the geth's optics. I hack that and I can project a fake image of a _second _Mako into their visual systems and they'll focus on it, while we flank from the side. The second Mako isn't there, it's just me tricking their photosynthesizing unit."

"That's...brilliant! Can you actually do that though?" Marcus asked.

"Would I have have brought it up if I couldn't?" Tali answered, turning to him with a look that said 'that's a stupid question.' Pity her mask hid it.

"Good point. Get to it. I'll double check the systems, see if that siege pulse fried any systems." Marcus declared before Garrus' voice entered his headset.

"Leonidas, where the hell have you gone?" Garrus asked.

"We retreated, Raptor, got too hot. Tali has a plan though, we just need a couple of minutes. Make your way over to us. Transmitting coordinates." Marcus ordered, sending the coordinates as he spoke.

"Copy that Leo, Raptor out." Garrus confirmed, and Marcus chuckled at the use of his shortened codename.

A couple of minutes later and Tali had announced that the program was ready and Marcus had finished checking the systems, satisfied that nothing had suffered any permanent damage. Marcus gave her the thumbs up to upload the hacking program and upon Tali declaring it uploaded, began speeding back towards the geth base.

His instincts had him prepared to move past the corner and be face to face with the two colossi, but instead he saw them firing their siege pulse cannons at another target; nothing. Of course, he had to remind himself that they thought they were firing at the Mako, when all Tali had done was trick their optic photosynthesizers. The heavy turrets weren't tricked though, and they opened fire on the real Mako immediately.

This wasn't much of a problem however, as the turrets were stationary, lightly armoured and couldn't counter the Mako's quick movements. Due to Ashley's excellent marksman skills, the turrets were quickly dispatched, leaving only the two colossi to deal with, which were still infatuated into destroying the fake Mako that wasn't even there.

Chuckling to himself at the geth's gullibility, he pushed the acellerator as hard as he could towards the nearest colossus, hoping to catch it off guard. He had no such luck. Apparently the geth heavy tanks had finally recognized the trick and turned back around only to be staring down a charging alliance tank. This time, the real thing.

The Mako slammed into the geth's torso like a jackhammer, causing the geth assault platform to topple over and slam into the ground, the Mako practically gliding over it as it landed on the ground in front of the now helpless goliath. Without hesitation, Ashley spun the turret and opened up with everything the Mako had, explosive rounds and machine pellets hammering the colossus' shields and armor with unwithering hatred.

When the cannon finally overheated, the entire assault platform's optics had been blown apart and the armor chasing completely ripped apart, exposing many of the nonfunctioning processing units and inner anatomy of the geth machine, along with what seemed like a nonstop flood of white liquid.

A siege pulse impact on the Mako's shields reminded them that they weren't done yet. Hitting the acellerator, Marcus spun the vehicle around to face the second colossus, and with the weapon cooled sufficiently, Ashley opens fire.

The first wave of gunfire does nothing to the colossus, and the spider-like mech simply answers with a second siege pulse bolt but luckily Marcus avoids this shot and gives Ashley more room to pepper the colossus' hull as it desperately turns around to counter. However and luckily for them, the geth mech is much to heavy and cannot turn around fast enough and when they finally defeat the geth, it is covered in ripped armour chasing and machine gun holes, the geth simply going inert as it topples over.

Marcus brings the vehicle to a complete halt as he surveys his team's handiwork, smiling at it all. Then he remembered that there was probably a turian who needed picking up before he ran out of oxygen. He turns to Wrex and signals him down.

"Take the Mako and pickup Garrus, then come back. I'll take the rest of th team and storm the base, take out any survivors and find out anything we can about the geth's original plans in this sector. Then we'll evac and get the Normandy to bomb this place from orbit. Move." Marcus orders in rapidfire before equipping his shotgun and hitting the hatch, helmet on.

Just as Liara clears the hatch, it closes and the Mako takes off down the moon's landscape towards Garrus' location. His comm crackled and Joker's voice entered his helmet.

"Uh, Commander! Don't know what you did down there, but the VI just reported that the geth frigate lit up like a christmas tree! They know we're here and we detect numerous dropships prepping for take off! Better wrap it up fast!" Joker said with an urgency uncommon in the man's daily life and then cuts off the comm.

"You heard him, let's move! Double time it!" Marcus barked as he ran towards the base entrance, team not far behind, keying his comm to Wrex as he did, "Scarab, take the Mako and find some high ground! When you spot dropships headed our way, you pound them hard! Draw their attention long enough for us to get out!" He disconnected the comm, not expecting an answer as he reached the door.

It was of an odd design, but very geth. It was circular in design, with two parts like every door. Looking at Tali, the quarian raised her omni-tool and hacked the door. The glowing haptic interface; a hologram in the middle of the door symbolizing a door panel, turned from red to green as the door opened. The two sections slid circularly anticlockwise before opening with a sound similiar to a geth pulse rifle firing, just less high-pitched.

The room ahead was once again of geth design, with sleek bug-like aesthetics and walls, with little lighting and a very creepy, eery feeling about it. Two panels stood in the middle of the room and standing next to them were two geth troopers, both looking blankly at a wall. Marcus raised his weapon to fire but Tali put a hand on it, causing him to lower it.

"They're inert and unaware of our presence. They're currently connected to the consensus, probably talking with the other geth." Tali explained.

"Consensus?" Marcus asked.

"It's hard to explain. It's a seperate world only the geth have access to, as it's virtual. It's a virtual world where all geth programs reside and it's where they coordinate they're people as a whole. Every action a platform does is because all geth authorize it. Think of democracy, except the voting is done in seconds and there's less arguments. The geth usually agree with each other all the time, so disagreements are impossible."

"So while they're in the consensus, they're can't hear, see us or feel our presence?" Kaidan asked.

"Completely safe. It's also where they go to recharge energy cells, hence the panels. A geth is always connected to the consensus via the programs inside the platform; remember, the geth are just software and programs, the platform is just the hardware they use to sustain solid form. The panels are just so they can recharge those platforms and allow better access to the consensus."

Ashley laughed as she looked directly into the dark geth's optics, the trooper not moving, proving it was unaware of their presence. Marcus moved forward and put a armoured gauntlet on the geth's 'shoulder', feeling the cold material through his suit. He knocked on it and the sound echoed throughout the room.

He looked up at the trooper's back and noticed the magnetically attached pulse rifle. Smirking to himself, he grabbed the pulse rifle and ripped it off its back. The pulse rifle was as cold as the geth platform that used it, but felt oddly familiar in his hands. Unlike most weapons however, this weapon remained compact. He frowned.

"Wait, its just the geth countermeasures," Tali explained, scanning the weapon with her omni-tool, "The geth upload antiorganic touch programs to prevent enemy combatants from utilizing their weaponry. Very easy for me to override however...and..." Tali practically squealed in delight as the weapon beeped mechanically and unfolded into Marcus' hands, the sudden weight causing him to lift it with two hands. Very heavy.

The weapon was sleek and looked deadly; perfect. It'd be hard to get used to having to use these 'thermal clips' the weapons used, but it'd be worth it for the weapon's deadly firepower. He grabbed his Diamond Back and tossed it to Ashley, considering it her new weapon as he attached the pulse rifle to the magnetic clamp on his back.

"I'm sure Garrus can redesign the weapon to utilize mass acellerators instead of heat sinks." Tali stated.

"Hopefully. Ammo is definitely last century. Come on, we've got geth to kill." Marcus declared as he took the geth's thermal clip supply and put it into the pouch on his armor, left breast of his chestplate. Taking point, he could hear the sound of the geth frigate taking off outside, quickly followed by the Mako opening fire. Wrex had arrived, buying them ample time.

Another geth door welcomed them but Tali quickly overrode it like the last and this time a bigger room with two floors greeted them. Panels surrounded the room, once having once housed geth platforms, but now all those platforms stalked the room like predators; hoppers, destroyers, troopers and a juggernaut. _Oh crap._

Two shotgun shots from behind him confirmed his suspicions; the geth in the previous room were also on, but Tali had dealt with them. However, this alerted the rest of the geth in the room and a dozen optics spun to face them. With machine efficiency, they attacked without hesitation. Marcus coordinated his squad into cover and decided now was a good time for his shiny new pulse rifle.

He could tell geth snipers were on the balcony due to the red lasers scouring the room for targets. He'd deal with them first. Pulling out his punisher sniper rifle, he quickly spun around the cover and lowered the scope over the first sniper's optics, pulling the trigger and ducking back into cover just as a second sniper gained a bead on him and fired, just missing him.

He turned again and picked off the second sniper before holstering his overheated weapon, taking out his pulse rifle. _Snipers down. Let's see what this baby can do. _Pulling out his pulse rifle, he quickly turned cover and found the perfect demo; two geth troopers advancing on Liara's cover.

Luckily, the geth used triggers so it was a simple matter of using it like any other assault rifle; aim, pull the trigger, watch your handiwork. He did just that and the weapon screeched and buckled in his grip, a steady stream of purple shots fired out of the weapon and ripped the lead geth apart, leaving it a mangled mess with steam pouring from it. The second trooper followed the first and Liara nodded her thanks as she moved to engage another trooper trying to flank her.

Marcus smiled as he moved into cover and back out to take out a charging destroyer, the weapon ripping through its shields and armor like they were paper, causing it to slam optic-first into the ground. _I really like this gun. _Once back in cover, he slammed a fresh clip into the weapon's heat sink and moved out to continue his steady rthym of massacring geth.

Just when he thought he'd get to keep the weapon, a rocket blast hits him and causes the weapon to explode, sending him flying into the wall and down again. Getting up he finds himself holding two pieces of a destroyed weapon and drops them, signalling Ashley to slide his Diamond Back to him, to which he picks up.

Looking up he finds the cause of the attack; three geth assault drones glided into the room. They were bigger than the recon drones that had so easily killed Jenkins on Eden Prime and had the standard round optics inside of the slits that the recon variants possessed. They also had built in rocket launchers and a HMG. Assault drones were the key term, and they wanted him dead.

As he tried to get up a stinging pain filled his body as he looked down to see fragments denting his armor. The rocket had apparently not only blasted his shields and destroyed the mini-generator that created them, but also had left fragments on his armor and one had apparently decided to hit the bullet wound he had gotten from the Fedele. Wonderful. More scars to add to my portfolio.

Raising his Diamond Back he unleashed a carnage upon the lead drone, causing its weak shields to fail on impact, but that only garnered its attention. He then emptied everything he had into it, destroying the drone but leaving two others to kill him.

A shotgun blast saved the day however, destroying the second drone and allowing Tali to move in and pull Marcus back into cover. Liara, Kaidan and Ashley quickly joined the fight, downing the final drone, allowing them to finish off the remainder of the geth forces. Meanwhile, Tali becomes overprotective, as being a quarian, warrants.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need medical attention?" Tali asked in rapidfire, bringing up her omni-tool to scan him.

"I'm fine Tali, honestly. Just a few rocket fragments and a melted kinetic barrier generator. I have the impression I won't need it anyway, I walk these injuries off." Marcus explains.

"After seeing Doctor Chakwas, you mean." Tali added, smiling behind her mask.

"Yeah, that. Don't you have geth to kill?" Marcus questioned, trying to worm out of his predicament.

"You mean the ones Liara just finished slaughtering? No." Tali responded and stood up to offer the spectre a hand up. He willingly accepted it but his weight was more than Tali could handle and they suddenly found themselves inches apart, face to mask. They both stood in awkward silence as they looked into each other's eyes, but Ashley's voice broke it.

"Um...are you two okay? Did 'geth frigate waiting to kill us' not get written as a memo?"

Realizing where they were, both of them immediately leapt backwards and away from each other, turning away, with Tali blushing immensely behind her mask and Marcus scratching the back of his neck.

"Right. Let's get that info. Tali, scan those terminals, see what you can find. Everyone else, guard the entrance, noone gets through." Marcus reentered battle mode and shouted his orders before assuming position next to Tali, shotgun out, making sure to keep his distance incase she interrogated him about the awkward moment they just had.

Tali's fingers danced over the console as the geth screen was covered in khelish text, the quarian scouring the geth archival information for any useful intel. She frowned in surprise at what she found.

"Keelah, that's creepy..." Tali muttered aloud, causing Marcus to spin around to face her.

"What did you find?" Marcus asked.

"The geth were transmitting this into the Perseus Veil just before we attacked..." Tali trailed off, tapping a button on the screen and causing a projection to appear on the wall. The video image of a quarian woman standing before a hushed crowd appeared, the woman holding an odd instrument while looking out across a crowd of her fellow quarian folk, all suited, a testament of their people's cursed existence.

The woman began to sing a song, her voice beautiful and full of emotion, of sadness, of depression, of melancholy. Of the fate her people shared. The music was quiet, yet melodic...yet beautiful.

_"Ancestors, our children suffer. Oh why, why, do we suffer" she sang._

_"We call out for help, we weep, we run, we work, but still you do not answer us..."_

_"We are lost. Lost among the stars, condemned to live on starships for as long as we breathe. Oh ancestors, why..."_

_"Our creations have rebelled against us and we have been cast out. We do not know what to do. We are clueless. We are lost." _

_"Oh Ancestors, please show us where we must go, what path we must follow so we may rekindle our faith in you and ourselves."_

_"Lost we are, so very lost. We look for guidance, but we find none."_

_"You have enabled us to reach the next season. You have guided us amongst the stars only for us to receive hate and racism wherever we go."_

_"Oh ancestors, please heed our cry for...we are lost. So lost we are."_

_"Show us the light that guides us home. Behold Rannoch, to which our ancestors and your ancestors grew up unsuited and free! Show us home, for we long for it so."_

_"Oh ancestors guide us home, for we are lost, without Rannoch's guiding wind."_

The song reached its conclusion and the scene darkened, the quarians fading into nothing as the video ended and the projection receded.

"That...that...was so...beautiful. Yet...so sad." Marcus stated finally, visibly saddened by the woman's words.

"I'm confused, how can we understand it? Quarians didn't speak english until humans entered the scene and this is way older than 2157." Kaidan asked.

"Translators, remember?" Marcus said, pointing to his helmet, "What I'm interested in is why the geth; heartless, cold, emotionless machines, would send a song to their consensus in the Perseus Veil. It shares no strategical value, so why would they send it? Machine logic dictates it's useless to them."

"I don't know. I honestly don't want to know why the geth would be interested in a song made by my people. But that's not all I found. I found alot of geth data. Data on geth tactical positions, fleet movements, number of ground troops, statistical data, everything they're up to. Everything but the location of a base. It also provides data on platform anatomy and can tell us how the geth have evolved for the past three centuries." Tali explained.

"Excellent! This data could greatly assist the Alliance's cyberwarfare division. Upload it to an OSD and lets go." Marcus ordered, throwing an OSD into the quarian's open palm. The machinist nodded at him quickly before inserting the OSD into the slot and beginning the upload. Marcus quickly put his helmet back on and made sure his squad was okay before moving back to Tali.

"Upload complete." Tali informed them, grabbing the OSD and throwing it into a pocket in her suit before picking up her armageddon shotgun and running to join them. Marcus followed after and they quickly found themselves back outside. The sky was covered in a dozen dropships, all firing upon a Mako which was nimbly dodging them while exchanging shots.

Wrex, apparently noticing their exit, sped towards them and came to a stop, the hatch popping open and Garrus hurrying them inside. Making sure they were all strapped in, Marcus finally gave Wrex the go to hit it, just avoiding a bolt of energy from a incoming dropship. The frigate up above was ascending; it was leaving the planet.

Before Marcus could scream into his comm however, bolts of blue energy impacted the frigate's shields, the javelin-torpedoes garnering the geth vessel's attention as it turned to attack the Normandy that sped past it. The Normandy spun back around and attacked again, outclassing the geth frigate's slower attacks.

The shields imploded from the first torpedo and the second pierced the hull on impact, entering out the otherside and causing internal fires as the geth frigate's spinal structure caved in. Spinning back 'round one final time and just evading a shot from the geth frigate's starboard guns, it fired two final shots, tearing the ship apart and causing internal explosions. The frigate's body began to fall until its engine core went critical, causing it to explode in a flurry of bright red light. The frigate had been destroyed.

Marcus continued to smile as the geth dropships attempted to uselessly attack the Normandy, but the ship's shields battered them off easily and retaliated with it's GARDIAN laser turrets, picking off the dropships one by one until none were left. When the Normandy finally picked them up and destroyed the geth base, they were already heading out of the Grissom system.

The third fleet would arrive and clean up, and the geth had successfully lost their spearhead in the war. That and the added bonus of huge amounts of intel on their geth enemy made the victory so much more sweet. It had been him and his team that had thwarted that invasion, and that he was proud. His team had done well.

Now just to get this info to the Alliance.

**"The intel on the geth must have been pretty good to warrant such celebration."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"It took awhile, but using that intel, the Alliance was able to create shield generators capable of countering geth weapons, made stronger ships, better weapons and also eventually gave birth to thermal clips and heat sinks. Of course, that's a story for another time."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Records state that Tali'Zorah actually requested to have access to the geth data to complete her pilgrimage. Can you tell us what Shepard's response was?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Read up Shepard's bio and then ask that question again. The answer should be fucking obvious enough for a retarded six-year-old to figure out."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**


	19. Chapter 16 Classified

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN:**

**CLASSIFIED**

_June 30, 2183_

_1442 hours. _

_Engineering, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound to rendezvous with Everest-Class Dreadnought SSV Orizaba._

_Eden Prime War._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Chief Engineer Gregory Adams._

It had been a while since the Battle of the Armstrong Cluster and Tali was content with herself. Not only did she get to destroy more of the machines that had condemned her people to misery, but she had successfully destroyed their base of operations in the area and stopped a invasion that could have potentially ended badly. All in all, the day had gone well.

What creeped her out however was that damn recording. Why were the geth interested in a song made by their mortal enemies? Why go to the trouble of transmitting it into the Perseus Veil? Was it really that important? The geth run on machine logic and because of that, that song should hold no significance. If they had been trying to locate a weakness in the Flotilla's defenses, then she was confused in why they think they'd find it in a song made two hundred years ago.

The only thing that really bothered her right now was the geth data they had recovered from that base. Due to an Alliance force finding it first, humanity could lay claim to it and 'classify' it as confidential information restricted to the Alliance SIA (Systems Intelligence Administration). It was classified and therefore none of the quarian's business, but keelah she really wanted that data. She could just imagine what information like that could achieve if her people got their hands on it. They could develop ways of defeating the geth and furthermore, a way to retake the homeworld! She could use it as her pilgrimage gift. Knowing Gerrel, he'd leap at the chance to get ahold of such intelligence.

But why would Shepard give such information to a quarian? To his people, she was nothing but a beggar and a thief and not to be trusted with anything so important. Sure he had shown no prejudice towards her, but did that warrant unnessacary assumptions on her part? What made her think that he would just give this information to her out of generosity? All Tali knew is that she really wanted this data; it was key to the fleet's plans to retake the Perseus and for the pilgrim to complete her journey.

"Tali, how are you doing on the tertiary engine sinks?" Adams asked the quarian, causing her to jump out of her musing to check.

"Good, they read green across the board. I've done a double check to make sure and I can fully confirm that all checks out. I've found no glitches in the stealth system and the filters work perfectly." Tali answered, trying to keep the worry out of her voice. Damn that geth data. It's getting to her head.

"You seem alittle bit...distracted, Tali. Is there something I need to know about?" Adams asked.

"No, nothing. I was just...thinking about home." Tali lied.

"Yeah, I get that. I once lived with my parents back on Arcturus Station. That's the alliance's parliament resides," Adams explained, noticing Tali's confused posture, "That was before I gained a fascination for warships and joined the navy. My parents are politicians, they're left wingers in parliament. They didn't want me joining the Alliance, too much dangers they said. So much to see I said." Adams said, chuckling to himself.

"But I'm not going to bore you with my life story. Just want you to know that alot of people on this ship get homesick, but they know what needs to be done. Besides, once we stop Saren, you can go home, can't you?" Adams asked.

Tali was about to answer but stopped herself. _Do I want to? I get the feeling that I should stay here afterwards, but wouldn't that be selfish of me? I have a duty to my people, I can't go running off to serve alongside a man I love but doesn't love me back. Besides, after we stop Saren I need to complete my pilgrimage. No, home will not be coming quickly enough._

"No, I still have my pilgrimage to complete. I can't go home until my rite of passage is complete." Tali explained.

"Ah yes, that," Adams began and noticing Tali's less than excitable static position puts a hand on her shoulder, "Don't let it worry you so much, kid. Besides, maybe helping stop a rogue turian spectre and a geth invasion will be enough to show them that you're not a waste of resources." Adams ended, smiling at her.

She appreciated the gesture, but she knew the words weren't true. Not the genuinity of the meaning, but the actual fact. _I need a gift, not a reputation. _Adams, noticing her posture wasn't changing sighed.

"Look, I need to return my station. Do some diagnostic checks on the gravity stabilizers and then take a break. You've earned it. Besides, I can tell non-stop attacks on geth outposts has taken its toll on you." Adams then patted her shoulder and returned to his post, Tali going about his orders while still thinking to herself.

_Maybe if I just ask him. It can't be that bad. The worst he could say is no._

Tali slowly looks up and at the exit to engineering, but immediately looks back to her console knowing these thoughts are pointless. _He doesn't like you anymore and will probably just give you a lecture on alliance national security. _

_He doesn't have to love me, I just want to know if he'll let me have a copy of the data! _

Tali shook her head to stop the incoming mental war. She really needed to settle that. She had kept telling herself that any feelings she had for Shepard were gone now and made moot and that they were just friends now, but those same emotions kept rising back up again to challenge her logic. Besides, even if by the slim chance he still loved her then there was still the situation with her suit. Push those thoughts aside and just ask him you stupid girl!

_Worst he can say is no._ Yes, Tali had made her decision.

A couple of hours and late checks later, Tali signalled the end of her shift and entered the elevator, deciding to grab a tube of nutrient paste, eat it and then ask Shepard about the data. She had to do it now or they would dock with the alliance ship and he would hand over the information, rendering her oppurtunity wasted.

Once on the Crew Deck, Tali had quickly turned around and headed to the back of th table, grabbing a tube of paste and was about to insert it into the slot of her visor when Pressly's voice came from behind her along with another voice.

"So many aliens all over the ship, it's unacceptable I tell you!" Pressly stated.

"You're overreacting sir, at least give them a chance. I've talked with Garrus, and he's a really nice guy to talk to in terms of weapons." Johnson answered, the two moving to sit at one of the mess hall tables.

"Overreacting? We're housing a turian viglante, a krogan timebomb, a mental asari scientist and a bloody quarian beggar! The first three are understandable but we're letting a beggar and a thief have access to classified stealth technology and engine schematics? What if she transmits them back to her people? She could be leaking classified military intel to vagabonds!" Pressly respondes vehemently.

"That's a bit overzealous, don't you think? Tali's really nice and easy to get along with. And if Adams trusts her, I trust her. When it comes to Adams, he knows who to trust and who not to." Johnson retorted, taking a bite out of his ration bar.

"Adams can do as he pleases but I'm taking this up with the commander. It's unacceptable having aliens on a human vessel."

"Human AND turian. Remember, this ship was a joint effort between both species. So I guess Garrus has some leisure here." Johnson responded, pointing his bar at Pressly as he proved his point.

"Still doesn't excuse the krogan, asari and especially the quarian." Pressly mumbled.

"You're just racist." Johnson said bluntly.

"Racist? I am not racist! I'm simply...very protective of alliance assets." Pressly retorted.

"Uh-huh. Nice try Pressly, but you're not really convincing me on the 'not racist' article." Johnson responded with a grin.

"You shut up or you'll find yourself demoted, officer." Pressly responded with a stern voice and Johnson simply turned away while holding his hands up in a 'I give up' stance and both men returned to eating. It wasn't long before doctor Chakwas joined the table and Pressly and herself entered idle talk. Tali shook her head sadly as she approached the door to Shepard's cabin. Not everyone was like him.

Tali stopped for a second, her finger hovering just before the doorbell to his quarters. _Should she do this? Keelah, stop questioning your decision and just get it over with! _Straightening her pose as much as quarianly possible, she hit the doorbell and waited for Shepard's response. Finding no response, she hits the doorbell again and still hears no answer.

_Is he asleep? No, not as this time of day. _Before she can further ponder this, Liara's voice comes from behind her.

"Tali? Are you looking for Shepard?" The asari asked the quarian and she turned around to address her. Tali was ashamed of the things she thought as she looked at the asari. _Yes, I want to talk to your bondmate, is that okay with you? Was I interrupting something? _

"Yes..." Tali shakily said, trying to keep the disdain out of her voice and thankfully succeeding.

"Last I checked he was in the med bay getting his wounds checked at by doctor Chakwas, that shrapnel hit alot of crucial points. I think the doctor is having lunch now so I think you can see him." Liara responded with a smile before continuing towards the elevator, disappearing from the quarian's sight as she entered it.

Sighing, the machinist headed towards the med bay and headed inside, spotting Shepard just across from the door. The spectre had snapped his look towards the door upon her entrance and had expected doctor Chakwas but smiled warmly as she saw Tali enter.

"Tali, you wanted to see me?" Marcus asked, motioning his head in his direction so as to tell Tali to come in. The quarian did so and stopped next to his bed and began wringing her fingers.

"I wanted to ask for...ask for a favor." Tali began, trying to find the words needed.

"Ask away Tali. What you need?" Marcus asked, still smiling at her. He sighed mentally. _She really is cute like this. But she only acts like this when she's nervous, so why is she doing it now? Was it about what happened on Solcrum?_

"I...," _Say it. Plain and simple. No thought needed, _"I was wondering if y-y-you could possibly let me have ac-access to the geth data we recovered. If you could give me a c-c-copy."Tali asked.

She examined Shepard's facial features change to one of realization and he seemed to think about it.

"This is classified data, Tali-" Marcus didn't even get to finish.

"I understand, I was just curious, that's all." Tali finished, moving to leave but Marcus immediately shouted after her.

"Whoa! You didn't let me finish! I said it was classified, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to give it to you. But why do you need it?" Marcus asked and the quarian immediately returned, surprised that the spectre was accepting the favor. She had underestimated him once again. Damn her cheeks, why do they keep blushing?

"Um...to complete my pilgrimage. This kind of information could help my people retake our homeworld and develop weapons to combat them. It'd really help my people have a chance at taking back our home." Tali said but left the last bit of her sentence out. _To finally be free of this suit._

"Tali, if you think this data will help your people then I'll give you a copy," Marcus begins, "You're also my friend. I trust you and that's enough reason for me to give this to you. Because of this, I'll give you the OSD and you can copy the files before returning it to me." Finished, he reaches into one of his pockets and pulls the OSD out and gives it to Tali, the quarian taking it with open arms.

"Tha-thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me, to my people. I will find a way to repay you for this gift of resources." Tali exclaims, putting the OSD in one of her suit pockets.

"Friends don't repay friends for things fairly given. Don't bother with repayment. You being on this ship to help stop an insane spectre and his army of geth is enough of repayment if any. Just make sure it's put to good use." Marcus finished and he smiled warmly up at her.

"Just make sure you get that OSD back to me before we dock with the Orizaba. We got to keep this between us. Don't let people like Pressly know or otherwise I'll get the biggest lecture on military confidentiality this galaxy has ever seen." Marcus finished and both of them laughed before they finally regained their composure.

"Thank you again." Tali said after a minute of silence and turned to leave, a big smile on her face.

_Maybe I was wrong about him afterall._

**{Loading...}**

_June 30, 2183_

_1457 hours. _

_Entrance to Peak 15 Facility, Aleusk Valley, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Matriarch Benezia M'Soni, Major Herau I'Loak._

"Ma'am, we're at the Peak 15 facility. We've tried hailing them again but they're still not responding. Should we force entry?" Herau asked, turning towards Benezia who sat in the passanger compartment of the alliance transport called the Grizzly. It was a large vehicle, at least 10 meters in length and had one medium sized heavy cannon on the roof and medium armor. Not as fast as a Mako, but it at least provided heavier defenses.

"Yes. Stop the Grizzly and have your troops set explosive charges on the entrance. I'll take the rest of the geth escort have them guard the garage incase Shepard arrives." Benezia ordered and the asari major simply nodded before signalling the driver to stop the vehicle and her commandos to begin moving outside.

"Wrashu, get some explosive charges on that door. I want a clean hole and no fuck ups. Benzia nor Saren accept failure." Herau shouted and they all poured out of the Grizzly, quickly followed by Benezia. The geth platoon behind them quickly followed, a large number of their troops having lagged behind to create fortifications along the Valley. If Shepard tried to stop them, he'd have an army of geth to get through. Not to mention the hoppers she left back at Hanshan.

Benezia was still annoyed that corporate hellhole and forced her to hang around for ten days to sign paperwork for a garage pass. She finally had enough of it and stated if Anoleis didn't let her get to Peak 15 immediately, she'd have her commandos massacre everyone in sight. This of course got the salarian to surrender and they finally made their way to Peak 15. Now they were here.

The freezing cold winds of Noveria swept over the asari matriarch as she scanned the landscape; mountains of ice and snow dotted the landscape as far as the eye could see and not much else. Noveria, the frozen planet. Completely devoid of any actual life apart from the local shatha. Far away from any local authorities, Benezia would be able to do as she pleases. First however, she has to find out what happened with Peak 15 and the rachni troops.

Benezia continued forward with the geth taking up her rear while her commando unit took the front, lead by Herau. It wasn't long however before they stopped outside as Herau ordered them to stop. Benezia, annoyed by the sudden stop, pushes her way through the squad of commandos and finds herself standing right next to the major.

"Why have we stopped?" Benezia demanded.

"We didn't get here first. Someone is here." Herau nodded ahead of her and Benezia turned to see a UT-47 Kodiak parked just outside the facility's garage doors. However, unlike the Kodiak shuttles used by the alliance or asari republics, this shuttle sported white and gold coloration, with an unfamiliar symbol on the door. A golden hexagon with two flanking golden lines.

"I don't recognize the color scheme. Could it be a corporate shuttle? Possibly inspectors?" Benezia asked as she moved forward, followed by her troops and towards the parked shuttle.

"It's Cerberus, although what they're doing here is beyond my understanding." Herau answered and Benezia turned towards her with a confused look. Herau notices this and sighs, turning back towards the matriarch as she answers.

"Pro-human extremists. Care nothing except for the purity of humanity and total galactic domination by said race. They're terrorists and don't like aliens very much," Herau briefly summarized, "Like I said, why they're here is anyone's guess. Nothing here except..."

"Rachni. They must have found out and came here to try and find a way to control them like Saren wants." Benezia finished for the major and she pushed forward with renewed vigor. She was not letting Cerberus beat her to her goal. The commandos and geth followed behind her and by the time they reached the garage door, they found it already half opened.

"Cerberus must have tried to close it but the circuitry shorted out," Herau explained, turning back to her domolitions expert, "Wrashu, we won't be needing those detonators. Everybody inside and follow the matriarch. You see a rachni make sure to evaluate whether it's hostile or not. We came here to check on Saren's army, not destroy it. Let's move people! Don't let these purists get the better of us! We are asari, leaders of the galaxy!" Herau boomed and her commandos cheered as they rushed inside, followed closely by Benezia and her geth soldiers.

Once inside the room she began her evaluation. It mirrored the Hanshan garage in many ways as the exit was the same and the actual garage was the same size. However, where Hanshan's had proper lighting, this one was malfunctioning and had multiple destroyed vehicles all over the place. It was a gruesome sight to see when she human blood smeared all over the walls and floor, followed by the decapitated and multilated bodies of dead scientists and even a few dead cerberus soldiers. Obviously the rachni had escaped. The VI's voice rose up as if to confirm that.

"Quarantine procedures now in maximum effect. Personnel evacuation now rendered impossible. Nuclear Bunkers Active. Reactor Core offline. Tramway offline. All Exits Sealed. Subject termination ineffective. Distress Call Untransmittable. All Armed Personnel are to terminate subjects on premise. Warning, unauthorized access of Peak 15 facility main facility. Sealing. Sealing unsuccessful..." The VI's voice continued to drone on.

"Whatever happened here left the place pretty banged up. Rachni must have gotten loose and killed everyone." Herau declared taking her men and continuing towards the left balcony that connected to the rest of the facility. Benezia turned towards the geth commander, which was a juggernaut.

"You and this entire unit will hold here and make sure nothing gets through. You here me? Nothing! The only thing you don't shoot is me or these commandos! I've contacted Saren and he is also sending a squad of krogan inbreds here so don't shoot them either. Do you understand?" Benezia ordered.

The juggernaut simply gave mechanical screech of acknowledgement before moving to join the other geth in the room and relaying the orders through more mechanical screeching. She would take that as a 'yes, I understand' in geth. Rolling her eyes she ran up the stairs after her commando squad before finally arriving at the doorway they had covered.

"You've got the door open?" Benezia asked, having her biotics on standby incase they had to fight rachni or company guards or even some of those cerberus troopers.

"No, Cerberus did. But I've got a tech that can override the door locks anyway. We're ready to go on your order, ma'am." Herau declared, readying her shotgun for breaching the door.

"Then lets do it."

**{Loading...}**

_June 30, 2183_

_1457 hours. _

_Rift Station, Peak 15 Facility, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Sergeant Major Jacob Taylor._

"Wong, get this damn door open." Jacob ordered as he and the rest of the cerberus squad took cover behind her. This mission was supposed to be a quick meet up with Shepard and was to bring a quick 'resolution' to the conflict between them and an alliance to be formed. But as if that was going to happen, something just had to go wrong. And it did.

Upon landing the shuttle they had gone inside only to be ambushed by a fireteam sized amount of rachni soldiers. He had lost five of his men to the creatures before they had retreated, allowing him and his troops to continue. From there on it had been a game of 'hide and seek' as they weaved their way through the abandoned facility and tried to hide or kill any rachni they came across. And to think they wanted to breed an army of these things. At least, from what he heard, the Fedele had been blown up before that madness could come to light.

Now here they were. They had managed to find there way into the tram station using the ventilation ducts and had managed to cross the deactivated tramline into Rift Station. Apparently this was where the outbreak had started and where the majority of the rachni escapees were. The area was probably infested with them.

It didn't take long for the tech of their squad to finally get the elevator door to open and they piled in as the screeching sounds of the rachni could be heard echoing through the tram station. The doors closed and the squad was left standing in the elevator as it ascended up and into the upper part of the base, all of the squad checking their weapons while Jacob checked his shotgun and thought to himself.

_The Illusive Man is real desperate to send this message to Shepard. I don't blame him; to have an asset like Shepard; the man saved Elysium and helped the retaliation at Torfan. If anyone had the ability to help humanity, it was Shepard. Still, it doesn't feel right. Why would Shepard help us when he would rather work with aliens? Aliens are great allies and I don't blame Shepard, but why would a man who sides with aliens help an organization that would see them all bleed to death and keep a sadistic smile as they watch? Sometimes I still wonder why I thought Cerberus was a better choice than the Alliance..._

He was shaken out of his musing as the elevator completed its ascension, the doors opening to reveal a room full of ERCS guards, all of which have their weapons pointed at them. Jacob even noticed a few turians and asari in the group and he thanked the maker for making him think of bringing standard alliance armor. Wearing cerberus armor on a planet like this would be like holding a flag over your head to an enemy to indicate where you were.

His squad also raised their weapons to counter the group as a voice calls out from the security squad.

"Squad, lower your weapons! They're Alliance!" A human man in white colored armor and a bald head walks out from the middle of the group and greets them and the ERCS guards lower their weapons, followed by Jacob's order for his men to lower theirs.

"We're Alliance Special Forces. We're sent here in response to a distress call relayed from Port Hanshan Authorities. I'm Sergeant Major Jacob Taylor, and you are?" Jacob answered.

"Captain Romero Ventralis, Elanus Risk Control Services Security. We're stationed here when the rachni broke out of containment. The whole base was overwhelmed in the first ten minutes and we've been forced to hole ourselves in here. We've got fourty civilians including a medical expert. I've a company sized amount of guards to coordinate and a tenth in that of basic defensive drones. We're running short on rations and medical supplies, so it's good thing you came when you could." The man named Ventralis reported.

"We're here to find the source of the attack. Where did the rachni first start showing up?" Jacob asked.

"The hot labs. That's where they take the rachni eggs after the queen produces them. It's a sealed off area. The VI sealed it off following containment programming. Only a keycard from senior personnel can get you in." Ventralis explained.

"We need that card to gain access so we can fix this problem. Do you know how we can terminate the rachni from that area?" Jacob asked.

"I don't know, but the egghead survivors kept going on about something called a 'neutron purge.' They said it reduces the atoms in a body into nothing. I may be no scientist, but I listened enough in class to know that equals the death of the rachni." Ventralis answered.

"Wouldn't that kill all of us though?" Jacob asked quizzically, not sure whether the neutron purge was a good idea.

"I asked myself that and apparently the VI says it only targets rachni DNA strands. Basically the purge is engineered only to be volatile to the rachni. All I know is that the purge affects the whole facility upon activation and will make sure all rachni are dead. The only room it doesn't affect is the central lab. Don't know why." Ventralis answered confusedly.

_Because that's where the queen is. Without the queen, they can't start over. _Jacob mused.

"Please captain, we need that card if we're going to stop this infestation." Jacob explained, moving forward to stand before Ventralis and the man simply nodded, reaching into his pockets and pulling out a keycard.

"This'll give you direct access to the hot labs. Move in, activate the neutron purge, then get out. I heard that the hot labs have demolition charges that reduce the place to rubble upon activation of the purge." Ventralis informed him.

"What? Why?" Jacob asked, shocked by the scientist's way of dealing with things. Didn't the purge kill the rachni? Why blow up the lab?

"I guess it's to make sure noone has any evidence of what they did or something. I don't know, what Binary Helix does is there business, I just guard the place." Ventralis stated.

"We'll be back..." Jacob starts but is cut off when his comm specialist, Yanus, calls him over.

"Yes, specialist?" Jacob whispers.

"Those motion sensors you asked Chris to deploy? Yeah, they just reported activity. Fourteen lifesigns headed our way, all asari. Biometric profiles state that the lead one is Benezia, Saren's second-in-command. My guess is that she's headed this way." Yanus reported.

"You think they're here for the queen?" Jacob asks.

"Yes and I think she may have been the asari matriarch mentioned in the briefing. As in the one that sanctioned the 'Project: Wizard' which turned out to be the order to breed an army of rachni for Saren? THAT one." Yanus explained.

"I have an idea on how to possibly delay her." Jacob says, smiling. He then turns back to Ventralis and approaches him, still smiling.

"Captain, we've just received word that a squad of asari militants are headed this way. Do not let them through by any means nessacary. They are here for the queen so they can create a second army of rachni. Kill them so they don't reach this goal. Are you in understanding, captain?" Jacob orders.

"Yes, Sergeant. But ain't I the one who gives the orders? Last I checked, captain was higher than sergeant." Ventralis quipped but Jacob was already walking away. Just as he entered the elevator he turned and answered as the doors closed.

"I'm military, you're a corporate guard. I have more authority."

With that, the elevator began its cold descent back into the base. Come to think of it, he didn't even know where the hot labs were. Sighing, Jacob pulled up his omni-tool and began hacking into Peak 15's mainframe for map schematics as the elevator continued to descend into hell itself as the sound of more rachni on the move grew.

**{Loading...}**

_July 1, 2183_

_2033 hours. _

_Airlock, Everest-Class Dreadnought SSV Orizaba HA-2, Asgard System, Exodus Cluster, In Orbit over Terra Nova. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard. _

"Officer on deck!" Came a cacophony of voices as the airlock door opened and Marcus stepped out onto the flight deck of the Orizaba. It was much bigger than the Normandy's of course, and sparred two levels, both the same in look but with a elevator to allow easy and quick access to both levels. Before him was a long line of alliance crew members and marines alike all stood on opposite sides of him in parade rest, saluting him.

When Marcus had come onboard he had decided to come in formal alliance wear; he wore standard alliance naval uniform with his the golden bars of 'Lieutenant Commander' on the left breast while the N7 insignia resided on his right. He stood in parade rest at the hatch and straightened his posture. He had trimmed his beard while also having showered. This may have just been a visit to transfer the geth data over, but this ship had a special member onboard he wanted to see and he wanted to look presentable.

Not to mention that after his next mission to Noveria, the Normandy was scheduled to rendezvous with the Orizaba a second time and take part in the Alliance's 19th War Games alongside the asari and turians to put the Normandy-class stealth frigates through real pacing. It was stated that the other six Normandy-class SR-1 stealth frigates; the Stalingrad, Brussels, Rome, Washington, Jericho and Tela Aviv would be participating as well. The Orizaba would act as the flagship for Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett, who was effectively the Fleet Admiral of the Navy; the commander of the entire alliance navy.

Taking a breath, Marcus moved forward and broke his parade rest as he moved down the isle of fellow human officers and marines. Many of the said marines looked like veteran soldiers while others looked like rookies fresh out of basic. Many had firm positions while also looked all too eager to shake the spectre's hand. Some of the marines were also of the N program, some being N4's, 5's and 7's. He stopped in the middle of the flight deck as the ship's XO shouted his next order.

"AttenSHUN!" The soldier shouted and every marine on the deck immediately snapped their hands to their sides and turned to face their superior.

"Squad...shin!" The XO shouted again and the marines brought their left leg up at 90 degrees and stamp it down so both of their feet were in a V shape. With that, the XO turned towards Marcus and moved towards him, smiling as he did so. The man wore an alliance uniform similiar to his, except his bars showed that of a Commander, making him higher in rank. The man had blonde hair, although it was barely seeable as he was wearing an alliance cap similiar to the one Marcus wore, also bearing his rank and insignia with the letters 'Cmdr' below, and his eyes were of a hazel color. His skin was slightly tanned but also held slight freckles. His features dictated he was around being forty.

The man stopped his approach and held out his hand for Marcus to shake, to which he took and shook it gladly and firmly.

"Lieutenant Commander Shepard, it's an honor to finally meet you. Our captain told us to be expecting you. We've been informed that your ship will be participating in the Alliance's nineteenth war games? It'll be exciting to see which Normandy-class stealth frigate wins out, huh?" The man asked, a smile on his face. At least he wasn't military-to-the-core. That Marcus liked.

"Yes, but my pilot is by far the best in the alliance, mister...?" Marcus trailed off.

"Coniglione, Commander Phillipo Coniglione. I'm the executive officer of the Orizaba." The man named phillipo stated.

"Italian?" Marcus asked.

"How observant. Yes, I was born in the countryside of Italy. Beautiful country. Although you can just call me Phillip, most people on this ship do and it's easier than reading my actual name. But some of the veterans call me by last name and it doesn't..." Phillip tried to finish, but one of the marine sergeants shouted.

"Coniglina, sir? You shouldn't keep the captain waiting. Will he require marine escort?" The sergeant shouted and this caused Phillip to facepalm at the mispronounciation of his name and he spins around to answer.

"I'm aware! And why would he need marine escort on a dreadnought? Unless this crew is brimming with Cerberus, I think he's pretty safe. And it's CONIGLIONE! If you can't get it right then call me by first name like everyone else does. DISMISSED." Phillip shouted and the marines immediately saluted, the sergeant shouting orders for his men to leave in marching formation. Phillip shakes his head as he turns back to him.

"Now you know the story of why they call me Phillip. Follow me, the bridge is this way." Phillip stated, holding his hand infront of him as he began walking out off the flight deck and Marcus followed closely behind him. The door opened to omit them onto the bridge. Unlike the Normandy's cockpit, as bridges on a frigate was an unnessacary waste of space, the bridge of a dreadnought was bigger by comparison.

The lay out of the room was that the room was flanked by two doorways which both had ramps leading down the bridge. The whole room slopped on an angle, which left the many consoles slopping down with it with the captain's chair in the middle; unlike on turian vessels where they preferred to have superior officers look over their subordinates, humans preferred to be in the thick of it.

Multiple consoles lay down in the room with gunnery control at the bottom, communications above it, navigation above of that and engineering just above that. Multiple crewmen ran around their consoles and executed assigned tasks while the unwithering form of the captain stood infront of the main viewscreen, which depicted the human colony world of Terra Nova below.

"Captain, Lieutenant Commander Shepard is here." Phillip announced and Marcus straightened his posture. _Hope I look presentable enough._

The human captain, female, turned around and smiled at Marcus. She was in her early sixties and had silvery locks of hair in what was once brownish hair. Her face that once was smooth and beautiful was now wrinkled but still refused to give up on youth all together. Her green eyes matched his almost perfectly as well. The perfect image of him. She wore naval uniform as well, her hair tied up in a ponytail while wearing an alliance cap.

"Hello, son." The woman said, still smiling as she moved forward. This was Captain Hannah Shepard of the SSV Orizaba, his mother. This was the special person he had come to see.

"Hi, mum." Seeing that both of them had dropped formalities, they simply skipped handshakes and hugged each other warmly before breaking apart three seconds later and Hannah held him at arm's length.

"Last time we met you were an Ensign. You've advanced alot from back then." Hannah stated happily.

"I'm in command of my own ship now, mum. My own crew, my own squad. I've also become a spectre, and let's not forget my N7 initiation." Marcus said, smiling at the memories.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there to see those. Damn Alliance had me jumping hoops and dealing with batarian pirate raids. Not much time for some leave. Only reason the Orizaba is here now is to deal with a possible batarian threat to Terra Nova," Hannah answered, "Apparently the Alliance got a tip about a batarian terrorist plot and we've been dispatched to deal with it. Figures." Hannah said, rolling her eyes.

"They sent a dreadnought? Why not a cruiser? Hell, they could have sent a battlegroup of frigates to deal with it." Marcus asked.

"I don't know, Alliance propaganda I guess. Probably want to show the hegemony that we ain't afraid to shove a dreadnought up their ass along with a few tons of tungsten." Hannah stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

"You've come a long way from commanding the Einstein, haven't you? From captain of a light frigate to commanding the deadliest piece of arsenal in the galaxy. Are the Alliance sure they should have someone like you commanding a ship like this? I mean...it packs alot of firepower." Marcus joked. Hannah merely laughed.

"Watch yourself, son! Just because we're family doesn't mean I won't kick your ass down the demotion ladder!" she teased.

Marcus held his hands up in mock surrender, "Okay, okay, I surrender."

Hannah stopped laughing suddenly and her voice became grim, "Besides, if what you said is true, then this ship is just like the Einstein compared to...that flagship of Saren's."

"You've seen the footage from Eden Prime?" Marcus asked.

"I was one of the Alliance brass that they actually entrusted with the footage. Said it was due to family ties. The stuff I saw on that tape is some of the most gruesome footage I've ever seen. Still doesn't compare to what I saw on Mindoir, but it's still horrific. And you're saying the geth have possession of that ship? They built it?" Hannah asked.

"That's what we originally thought. Apparently however, we've learned something even more horrifying. Fifty thousand years ago, a race of hyper-advanced machines wiped out the Protheans and vanished, leaving no trace of their existence."

"And how does this link to Saren's flagship?" Hannah asked.

"That's the scary bit. Those machines were called Reapers, and according to new data we've recovered, the geth didn't build that ship, Saren merely found it. It's a reaper ship, mum, and like you said, it's weapons can rip through a dreadnought's barriers like they were butter. We've never seen a ship so unbelievably powerful. What's worse is that we think they're are thousands more waiting to return and Saren's searching for a way. He calls his ship 'Sovereign.'"

"How oddly and eerily fitting." Hannah stated, "Sovereign must be the vanguard for a whole fleet, am I correct?" Marcus simply nodded and Hannah gulped.

"Then may _hashem _watch over us and protect us from such evil," Hannah said solemnly before looking back up, "But I doubt this is the doom and gloom hour and this most certainly isn't just a social visit. You have something for the Alliance?" Hannah asked.

"Yes, data on geth strategies, technological advancements, anatomical evolutions, etc. It's information they could give us a real edge in combating the geth." Marcus declared, handing the OSD over to the captain who took it and put it in her pant's pocket.

"Let's go to my quarters. I haven't seen you in awhile son and we've got a lot to catch up on. If you like I have a bottle of your favourite whiskey in my cabin." Hannah asked as she motioned for Marcus to follow her out the opposite door, motioning for Phillip to take command while she was gone.

"Yes please. I think catch up sounds rather tempting at the moment." Marcus said, holding a hand to his rachni inflicted injury on his arm.

"No getting overboard on it though. I will not be embarassed by having my drunk son roam the ship, understood? I have a sizable amount of dignity I'd like to uphold." Hannah teased.

It wasn't long before they reached her cabin and she hit the panel for them to step in. Marcus lingered for a bit before standing in and smiling.

"Yes, mum."

**"So Tali got the data she needed and Shepard met his mother again?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Wouldn't be the last time he met her either. They met quite a few times during the Reaper War, but that is for another time. You're probably wanting to know what happened next-"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**Code: IRON ROD declared, all personnel take immediate cover in Bunkers A-12, A-14, A-15 and C-09. This is not a drill. Yahg insurgents are attacking the facility. All coalition personnel, report to battlestations. This is not a drill. All non-essential personnel, take position in bunkers. I repeat-**

**"What the hell is going on? Coalition? What the hell is IRON ROD? Yahg insurgents? Are we at war?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"We'll continue this later. Someone get him to a bunker, I've got to link up with Barnes, see what the fuck is going on."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

"You can't be fucking serious!" 001 exclaimed, trying to wrestle out of his captor's grip but Carter simply sent a fist hurling into his face, causing him to go limp with unconsciousness. Carter motioned towards the door and they dragged 001 out of the room and towards the bunker. Snorting, Carter signalled his comm.

"Barnes, here." The voice came through the comm. Barnes was another STG agent going by the codename of Goliath due to his strong build.

"Barnes, I need a sitrep. What the fuck is going on out there?" Carter demanded as he headed out the door himself, just in time to see turian, asari, quarian and geth soldiers run down the hallway towards their action stations, followed by what seemed like krogan demolition troops. _Demolitions? Just what kind of fuck fest is going on out there?_

"Yahg insurrectionists are hitting us. Don't know how they found us but they have and they're hitting us hard. All interrogation subjects have been moved to the bunkers. All combat leaders are at battlestations and we're just waiting on you. Yahg in the atrium but we have quarian and geth snipers ready to pound 'em from above. Awaiting you sir."

Carter smiled simply as he equipped his TADS heavy pistol and slotted the plasma coil. As he did so, he moved towards his position at the atrium escalators.

"Lets kill some Reapers."

**SSV - Systems Service Vessel. **

**THS - Turian Hierarchy Ship.**

**MSV - Merchant Service Vessel.**

**QMFV - Quarian Migrant Fleet Vessel.**

**ARW - Asari Republics Warship.**

**CAW - Cerberus Assault Warship.**

**EMS - Elcor Monarchical Ship.**

**HPV - Hanar Primacy Vessel.**

**VPW - Volus Protectorate Warship. **

**Those are the only ones I'll do out of risk of spoilers.**

**Ah yes, the military. A truly interesting and intricate part of the human society. Because think of it, where would we be without those brave soldiers sacrificing their lives for us? So if, by this entire fanfic, you are confused when I mention militaristic terms, then I do suggest this wonderfully brilliant site called Wikipedia. **

**All thanks to Full-Paragon for almost causing him a mental block due to his latest chapter on Keelah Se'lai dubbed 'Mother Can I' (or at least I think it's called that, something along those lines). The thought of Tali using pokemon has caused the words 'dah fuck I just read' to go on mental repeat and it has somewhat left me questioning whether the sanity of fanfiction writers is even debatable anymore.**

**Jesus, if that scarred me then I can only imagine what reading 'Mistress Tali' by Dark Danny would be like. Honestly, Tali treating Shepard like a slave sounds very...you know what, fuck it, I can't even think about that without mental block. Time to start taking my friend's advice for once and eat ice cream.**

**And I've said it before, I think I'll say it once more...**

**LEAVE A REVIEW. THE FATE OF THE GALAXY DEPENDS ON IT. IF YOU DON'T THE REAPERS WILL KILL US ALL. MARCUS SHEPARD NEEDS MOTIVATION.**

**KEELAH SE'LAI!**


	20. Chapter 17 Frozen Extinction Pt1

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:**

**FROZEN EXTINCTION PART ONE**

_July 2, 2183 _

_1912 hours. _

_Council Meeting Chambers, Tower Spire, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Councilor Tevos, Councilor Sparatus, Councilor Valern._

"He did what?" Sparatus boomed, slamming his fists into the table, "Just what makes him think he can do this?"

Tevos and Valern simply stared at the reports themselves and shook their heads. Shepard had been a great help in the Armstrong area, but aside from that he had been a hellion everywhere else. He had caused property damage on Feros as well as finish off a species called the 'Thorians' and then he decided to destroy a merchant ship and kill a criminal that should have been handed over to the authorities.

"As a spectre it is well within his rights to do what he thinks is nessacary to stop Saren and complete his mission," Valern responded, "We knew this when we signed him up."

"So we gave him permission to kill off an entire species? And how does killing a psychopathic criminal have anything to do with stopping Saren? They had nothing in relation!" Sparatus countered but this time Tevos stepped up.

"The Fedele incident may not have been part of the mission, but as a spectre he works above the law. He can do as he wishes when he finds the need. As for the Thorian, you saw the reports, the creature was clearly a threat to life on that planet and had it continued to exist, the Alliance would have had to bomb the colony resulting in the deaths of many civilians. The Lieutenant Commander did an admirable job in holstering the situation." Tevos responded.

"We should at least contact him so he can explain his actions." Sparatus declared with venom in his voice. He really didn't like Shepard, it was obvious he'd find any excuse to have him disbarred from the spectres.

"Contact won't be nessacary. The Normandy recently docked with the SSV Orizaba to confirm the armstrong assault was a success. I don't believe that reining Shepard in will help any of us in the long run," Valern intersected, "According to Shepard, he is now heading to Noveria to chase a lead on Matriarch Benezia."

"Ah yes, the corporate dirty world. The last thing we need is them complaining to us about a spectre of ours causing trouble for them." Sparatus spat.

"It is not of our concern. What we should be worrying about is the defense of the Citadel in case of an attack by Saren and the geth. What Shepard does on Noveria is outside our sphere of influence. Let him complete his job and we'll do ours. Now, what about the Citadel fleet? Does any bolstering need to be done? Can the turians send a surplus of warships to patrol the relay?" Tevos asked.

Sparatus gave a sigh as he gave up on Shepard and moved on. He would find a way to get Shepard off the spectres, but now wasn't the time. Tevos and Valern had made their decisions, now to move on.

"The bolstering off our fleet won't be nessacary. Saren isn't an idiotic fool. He wouldn't dare attack the Citadel, especially with the Destiny Ascension. No, any attack by the geth would be a idiotic move on their part and I think the hierarchy would have their warships alligned strategically to protect not only the Apien Crest, but numerous turian systems as well. Support to other council systems can be given as well."

"The asari republics has just informed me of a similiar decision and after a bit of arguing, Parcela has withheld her request to have the Destiny Ascension reposted to help defend the Athena Nebula but has recalled the republic third and second fleets. What's the situatio with Sur'Kesh, Councilor Valern?" Tevos asked, turning to Valern. She was worried that the salarian homeworld might not be well equipped enough to repel an assault by the geth.

"All STG units in the Annos Basin have been put on full alert and all salarian fleets recalled to help defend key systems. Mannovai had originally been our most vulnerable colony, but with help from turian forces we've been able to secure it. Surprisingly however, the geth haven't made large scale movements against us. The most we've encountered was the stray frigate or battlegroup. Nothing on the scale of a heavy cruiser as of yet."

"You think they're playing it safe? Waiting to hit us when the timing is right?" Tevos asked Sparatus. Turians were military professionals, they knew strategy like the back of their hand.

"I think they're bolstering their own defenses to the Perseus and assembling a fleet somewhere inside. I've heard rumors that Perseus may not be their base of operations and that Saren has a base somewhere outside, but we won't be sure until we can get a unit out."

"Where did the rumor state Saren was hiding?" Tevos asked.

"The Sentry Omega Cluster, somewhere in the Hoc System. Inside that cluster is Saren's base of operations, but it's like I said, we need to send a recon group to make sure. To confirm the information and then react as per protocol dictates." Sparatus explained. Valern nodded at this and immediately accessed his terminal, searching the databases until he found what he needed.

"What you need is an STG unit to infiltrate the Hoc system and search every planet. The Third Infiltration Regiment just finished sweeping up the geth in the Artemis Tau Cluster and were en route back to base on Sur'Kesh. Should I have them reassigned to the Hoc system to check it out?"

"Is it really worth the budget and the men? We're talking about an entire regiment here." Tevos stated.

"If Saren truly is hiding in Sentry Omega, then we need to find him, and quickly. The sooner we end him and the geth threat, the sooner we can go back to galactic peace management. All in favor of the diversion to Sentry Omega, say aye," Sparatus responded, "Aye."

"Aye." Valern said immediately after.

After some hesitation, Tevos gave in, "Aye."

"Councilor Valern, contact the regiment's commander and inform him of his diversion to that area. This meeting of the Council is adjourned." Tevos declared and Sparatus nodded, leaving the room as Tevos followed quickly behind him. Valern stayed behind to relay the commands through his terminal before leaving as well.

Hopefully Saren was hiding in Sentry Omega.

And if he was, the STG would put an end to him and his plans.

**{Loading...}**

_July 2, 2183_

_1912 hours. _

_Debriefing Room, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Pax System, Horsehead Nebula, Entering Orbit over Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus sighed after Joker had confirmed to him that the team had been assembled in the debriefing room and were just waiting for him. He let the datapad slide from his grip and clatter onto his desk as he stood up, taking his helmet from the desk as he left. He had already taken his armor and put it on half an hour before and already had all his weapons holstered.

The meeting with his mother on the Orizaba had been something he needed. They had talked about what had happened in the years they had been seperated by their duty and shared nostalgic moments between each other. Afterwards, he had said goodbye to her and Phillip, boarded the Normandy again and set a course for Noveria.

He sighed once more as he remembered just where he was going as he climbed up the stairs. The debriefing and data packet had detailed that Noveria was a corporate handheld world where businesses flourished and were allowed to run their illegal experiments and advertising. If the Council had any sense of decency, as Noveria was in Council space and fell under their juristiction, they would have put the place under martial law until those companies could be ratted out.

But instead, the Council let them flourish, morons as always. Never willing to step up from the seat and act instead of react. So yes, here he was, going to Noveria. Luckily, he wasn't here to negoitate somekind of treaty with the scumbags that ran the place. No, he was here to track down Matriarch Benezia, and he knew that as horrible as it sounded, Liara was possibly the greatest asset on this mission.

Marcus then walked up the stairs and found himself in the CIC. Turning left, he heads straight into the debriefing room, the door closing behind him as he moved to take his position in the middle of the room. Everyone looked at him upon his entering and sat expectantly, all prior conversations ending immediately.

With his helmet still held firmly under his arm, he turns around and glances at each member of the group, pouting his lips.

"As you all know, we're entering orbit over Noveria in exactly two hours," Marcus began, "I will remind you that this place is not like the Citadel at all. It's not friendly," he noticed Tali rolling her eyes behind her mask and smiled, "or welcoming. This is where the businesses rule. This is where contracts and corporations go to do their dirty work. However, keep in mind that we are looking for an asari matriarch. Her name is Benezia M'Soni. Yes, Liara's mother." Marcus finished, letting the information given sink in.

Liara, as expected, took the information seriously as she straightened her posture and everyone looked at her with worried looks. Wrex simply gave her a raised eyebrow and mumbled something along the lines of 'killed my father, shouldn't be too hard.'

"If we're lucky, this mission will be boring and no direct combat will be required," Marcus began again and ignored Garrus and Wrex's disappointed moans, "But that doesn't mean we're going in unprepared. Everyone will come fully stocked and prepared. This is Saren's second-in-command, so I want you all equipped for a fight. Oh, and bring thermal heaters. Incase you didn't know, Noveria is known for its usually freezing tempertures." Marcus commented, chuckling to himself.

"We may need to question the locals and press them for information, but by no means do we play the bad cop card until you're sure they know something and you think they're suppressing it. Until then, we all play diplomat. I don't want to be thrown off Noveria because the authorities accused us of shooting civilians." Marcus finished, looking around the room, "Any questions or are we ready to find Benezia?"

Everyone went silent as Liara raised her hand slowly and hesitantly and Marcus nodded towards her. He had expected her hand to be the first up.

"When we find Benezia, what will we do with her?" Liara asked shakily. The asari was scared. She knew her mother; she wasn't a murderer, she wasn't a sadist and she certainly wouldn't work for Saren willingly. If what Shiala said was correct, then Sovereign was somehow controlling her mother and she had to save her. She wanted that kind woman back.

"I plan on capturing her so we can find out how Sovereign took control of her and reverse the effects. I'm not going to murder her in cold-blood if I know there's a way to save her. Not everyone who serves Saren deserves to die." Marcus explained.

"But what if she refuses custody? What if she attacks us? I doubt she's going to go quietly." Wrex asked.

"I don't know. I guess we'll decide when we get there. I'm not going to give up on Benezia being a lost cause. If we can save her then we'll have a new ally to help us defeat Saren. A valuable ally if her intel on Saren holds up. Unfortunately, I'm not taking everyone for this mission. I really don't imagine needing everyone for a mission like this."

"So, instead I'll be taking Liara, Tali, Kaidan and Ashley. The four mentioned, meet me at the airlock at twenty-one twelve hours. Crew dismissed." Marcus declared and left the room, the rest of the crew dispersing upon said orders. Garrus and Wrex were disappointed not to be going on the mission, but neither complained and simply returned to their stations as did the rest of the crew. Liara smiled at Marcus upon leaving and he simply smiled back as he headed towards the cockpit.

"Oh, hey commander. Come to check on our status or you here for the sights?" Joker asked sarcastically as he spun his chair around to face the spectre.

"The former. I know you said two hours, I just need to know just how unfriendly we're talking." Marcus asked, crossing his arms.

"Think of the Council, except instead of using politics, they threaten to shoot you out of the sky with nuclear missiles and welcome their guests with three-man special response squads." Joker stated.

"I can't really picture Tevos with an assault rifle, but I can understand now. Just make sure you don't throw too many sarcastic remarks at them. I'd rather the Normandy stay in one piece." Marcus declared, uncrossing his arms.

"Did I hear you right? A nuclear missile taking down the Normandy? I'd call you racist against brittle boned pilots, but that really isn't a race. I'll just go with calling you an asshole." Joker finished, spinning his chair around to face the cockpit viewscreen.

"I'm sorry, Joker." Marcus said with a smile.

"Yeah, you'll also tell me that your master chief and you have an AI mascot and that the Reapers are really just the Flood." Joker retorted.

"Wait, Master Chief? AI Mascot? Flood?" Marcus asked, looking at Joker's turned back with a look of confusion.

"Tsk, tsk, Shepard. Do you have any respect for the classics? Did you even have a childhood?" Joker turns around smiling, "The next thing you'll say is that you don't know who Prophet is." Joker kept on smiling upon seeing Marcus still static confused expression.

"Mario? Zelda? Vaas? Dovakiin? Price? Soap? Black? Ezio? Sam? Alcatraz? Max Payne? Nathan Drake? Jak and Daxter? Rachet and Clank? Snake? Titus? Isaac Clarke? Marcus Fenix? Sam Fisher?" Joker finally finished and still noticing Marcus' blank expression, gawped.

"Are you serious? You don't know ONE of them? Those games are like the best! Hell, you probably just play Alliance Corsairs or Galaxy of Fantasy don't you?" Joker asked and Marcus shakes his head.

"I'm military. I don't really have time to play video games." Marcus said with a 'duh' expression.

"You disgrace me with your presence." Joker stated jokingly, turning back to his position and Marcus laughed as he turned and continued walking down the flight deck. Noveria would come when it came, right now he had some paperwork to get through...and he also needed to see if Tali had gotten the information she needed.

**{Loading...}**

_July 2, 2183_

_2112 hours. _

_Docking Bay, Port Hanshan, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

"Approach control, this is SSV Normandy of the Alliance Navy. Requesting a vector and a berth." Joker announced as they entered Noveria's atmosphere, Marcus right behind him as he fitted on his helmet.

The response was immediate, but as expected, unfriendly, "Normandy, your arrival was not scheduled. Our defense grid is armed and tracking you. State your business." The voice was gruff and serious. Marcus watched as Joker rolled his eyes and responded.

"Council business. We've got a council spectre onboard." Joker finished and for a moment, the response wasn't immediate this time. Marcus watched as the Normandy glided into the awaiting docking bay of Port Hanshan and patted Joker's chair, moving back towards the airlock with the rest of his team.

"Landing access granted, Normandy," the man replied, but he apparently wasn't done as he continued, "Be advised: we will be confirming identification on arrival. If confirmation cannot be established, your vessel will be impounded." Joker rolled his eyes again as he hit the disconnect button and focused on landing the Normandy. When he heard the cradle clasp down on the ship, he lay back and sighed.

"Yeah, I'd like to see you impound this to," Joker mumbled, raising his middle finger at the control tower, "Try to impound the numerous javelin torpedoes I can send up your ass to, asshole." With that, Joker grabbed the glass of water that lay next to him and took a sip before laying it back down and grabbing his fornax magazine.

"Issue Four. This oughta be interesting." Joker said, making sure noone could see what he was reading. Fornax magazine, the pornographic magazine of the galactic community. Yes, even aliens had picked up on disgusting human culture.

"Okay people, who heard the grinch, we have a job to do so lets get it done. Upon entrance of the area, we will split up and begin questioning people. We'll meet back up just outside the hotel. You all clear?" Marcus finished, looking for any objections. Seeing none, he nods to them and moves towards the airlock, hitting the panel to open it.

He was hit by a freezing cold wind that was immediately washed away by the thermal heater situated in his armor. It seemed quarian suits had them as well as Tali didn't seem affected by the icy wind that washed in from the open dock. The dock was much the same design as the Zhu's Hope dock, except it was much larger and could situate multiple Normandys as well as being...well...less destroyed.

Nodding to his team he ran up ahead, turning right and moving down the catwalk until he reached the end and turned right again only to be met by a squad of ERCS guards. Oh this oughta get interesting. As he approached, the leader of the group, a human woman, raised her hand signalling for them to stop, and they did.

"That's far enough, all of you stop where you are." The woman stated and after reading her nametag, he found her name to be 'Captain Maeko Matsuo.' She looked like one of those hardcore, no-shit types, but that at least paled in comparison to the blonde haired human woman next to her. She looked ready to send a shotgun slug up someone's ass.

"We're not here to cause problems, Captain." Marcus stated, trying his diplomatic side.

"This is an unscheduled arrival. I need your credentials." Matsuo ordered, her assault rifle held towards the ground. Reading the nametag of the other woman, he found her name to be 'Sergeant Kaira Stirling.' Well didn't she look charming. She was giving Tali a look that only meant 'I want to rip you wide open'. That look meant she was a sadist or a psychopath.

"N7 commendated, Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconissance. I'm here on Council business." Marcus stated, about to bring up his omni-tool to prove his identity, but Stirling apparently decided it was her turn to add her money's worth.

"Load of horsecrap, ma'am." Stirling spat with disdain, turning towards her superior with a look of disgust before looking back at Tali. He swore she was thinking of raising that shotgun of hers and firing it, and if she did he would retaliate without hesitation.

"We will need to confirm that." Matsuo stated, obviously not liking her subordinates antics either. At least he wasn't alone in this. The rest of the squad, mostly turians, just hung in the background. Apparently though, Matsuo wasn't done, "We must also remind you that weapons are not permitted on Noveria," turning to Stirling, she continues, "Sergeant Stirling, secure their weapons."

"Of course." Stirling submits, turning towards them with a smile and heads towards them, but Marcus wasn't having any of this crap. Without hesitation, he unholstered his raikou pistol and raised it to aim at Matsuo's head, his team following his actions just as quickly. The ERCS team were slow, but apparently Stirling saw it coming and already had her shotgun lowered at Tali's faceplate, "Try it bitch. Try it!" Stirling spat.

"Chiktika will take you down faster than you can pull the trigger." Tali snarled and for once Marcus was surprised at the quarian's actions. She could be a nervous wreck at one point, and a ruthless killer the next. What a woman. Matsuo also raised her weapon, as did her squad. Marcus had enough, he wasn't playing antics anymore.

"I'm a Council spectre and I'm on a mission to stop all of you from being wiped off the galactic map. To do that, I need my weapons with me and so do my crew. I hope you can understand that." Marcus stated firmly and coldly, but Stirling was unwithering. He could hear Tali over the squad's channel.

"I really hope your armor is in good condition. This human really wants to kill me. She looks murderous." Tali chirped and he smiled behind his helmet, careful not to chuckle. Before he was forced to send Stirling spiralling over the edge of the dock, another female voice, presumably human or asari, came over the comm.

"Captain Matsuo, you and your men will stand down immediately." the voice demanded, and Matsuo motioned for her squad to lower their weapons and Stirling did so reluctantly, mumbling under her breath as she did, "Lucky day suit-rat. Next time won't be so lucky."

The woman continues, "We confirmed their identity. Spectres are authorized to carry weapons here, Captain." Seeing that he was going to be walking past live bodies, not dead ones, Marcus lowered his weapon, ordering his squad to do the same and they all holstered their weapons.

"You may proceed, Spectre. I hope the rest of your visit will be less confrontational," Matsuo stated, "Parasini-san will meet you upstairs." With that, Matsuo motioned for her men to follow her back into the port, obviously returning to their stations. Stirling passed them a dirty look as they walked past the glass doors, spitting at them as they moved past.

"Behave yourself." She said as intimidatingly as she could, before turning and leaving down the corridor to the left of the entrance, disappearing behind the closing door. Thank god for that. That woman has serious issues. Did she speak the same way to every man that tried to flirt with her? Or did she respond to every man who tried to ask her out with a shotgun slug?

The next room was pretty big. It was flanked by two flights of stairs that lead up to a single security checkpoint, flanked by two more ERCS guards. Damn, for a port this place had tight security. Even the Citadel didn't have this tight security, and it was the capital of galactic politics!

He motioned for his team to follow him up the stairs and tried to pass through the scanners, but they responded with a loud, ear-piercing alarm and both guards turned towards him alongh with two security drones. A woman in a red dress quickly answered and ran in, holding her hand up.

"It's okay. They're spectres. I'll reset the alarms." The woman named Parasini hit a button under his desk and the alarms stopped immediately, the guards and drones returning to their posts. Marcus nodded and turned back towards the woman.

"Who do I have to thank for solving the incident in the dock?" He asked politely.

"The Administrator's secretary, that's who," the woman answered with a smile and reached out her hand, to which Marcus took and shook, "Gianna Parasini, as already said I'm the administrator's secretary. I handle all arrival bookings and the other mundane chores of working for the Hanshan authority. To say Administrator Anoleis was happy about a spectre arriving is...a mistake."

"Does the administrator not respect authority?" Marcus stated with a little bit too much ego that it surprised him.

"Respect it? He feeds on it. He practically expects people to treat him like a king. Anoleis however hates spectres. Says the companies here get a little bit scared that they're going to investigate their stock and to Anoleis, that's bad for business. Any particular reason your here? As administrator, everything that happens in this port is Anoleis' business, I'm afraid to say." Parasini declared.

"I'm here looking for an asari matriarch, her name is Matriarch Benezia. We're on Council business, so I'm afraid I can't say anything else. Council is very sensitive when it comes to that kind of stuff." Marcus stated.

"A matriarch you say? We don't get many coming here but there was one that arrived just twelve days ago. Arrived via shuttle and came with alot of cargo and a squad of hardcore asari commandos. Must be pretty important to have such well-trained military units as escort. She was pretty vague as to her presence here though. Something about Binary Helix."

"Commandos? And noone found it odd that she walked into a port with a squad of commandos?" Marcus asked, confused that they were so willing to disarm them, but as soon as a squad of commandos walk in they treat it like a common occurance.

"It wasn't in my place to really question their presence. Anyway, she was forced to hang around for ten days to authenicate some paperwork but that takes weeks longer, so I'm guessing Anoleis let her go early." Parasini finished.

"Go early? Where else is there to go in Hanshan?" Marcus asked.

"Not Hanshan, no. She took a Grizzly and went to Peak 15. It's a facility that Binary Helix had contructed for their own personal use. Snowstorm rolled in nineteen days ago and has been rolling ever since. All contact with the facility was lost and no vehicles have attempted to make contact with us. Noone was allowed to leave unless they had a garage pass and that's what Benezia had to hang around for. She had to forge her own pass."

"I don't have weeks to hang around while a pass is authenicated. I need to get to Peak 15 right now!"

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. I guess you can have a shot at trying to get Anoleis to let you borrow his pass for the time being. Although the likelihood of your success is low." Parasini stated, shrugging her shoulders.

"Best to try then to not try at all," Marcus stated, "Where can I find him?"

"Administrator Anoleis' office is just up the elevator. Take the left down the stairs and then head left again and you'll find his office. If you don't mind, I need to get going. Things I need to clear up." With that, Parasini smiles one last time and leaves. Marcus nods at her leaving and he turns back around to address the group.

"Commandos. Wonderful," Marcus keyes his omni-tool and contacts both Wrex and Garrus, sending them a message telling that there has been a change of plans and they're to meet them at the administrator's office. With that, he motions for his team to follow him into the elevator and it begins its ascent.

Luckily, for all their sakes, the elevator ride wasn't overly long and painful and they arrived in the actual port in next to no time. Upon exiting the elevator, they are met by a pair of ERCS guards who seem to be guarding the door. Upon moving out to gain a better view of the place, they find quite a large area.

The area they were in must be the atrium and main center of Port Hanshan, as there was a mechanic's store right in front of the elevator exit, stairs cascading down into the center of the room where a large set of windows allowed a clear view out into the freezing landscape of Noveria and a large amount of ERCS guards patrolled.

To his left was the admin's office and to the far right of the room was, by the signs, the entrance to Synthetic Insights, the garage itself and the hotel. Marcus was starting to get irritated by the sheer number of guards patrolling the area, but he didn't press the issue as he decided to approach Anoleis' office. After flashing his spectre status to the turian pair of guards, he entered the room and immediately approached the front desk, to where Parasini stood.

Upon seeing them approach, Parasini looked up and smiled at them.

"Good, I have informed Anoleis and he will see you now," Parasini declared, keying her desk comm, "Mister Anoleis."

An irritated, definitely salarian due to the rapidfire tone, answered, "Yes? What is it? What? What?"

"Lieutenant Commander Shepard would like to see you. He's the spectre that just arrived." Parasini informed the annoyed salarian, who responded just as fast.

"Very well, send him in. Tell him to leave his colleagues outside, I don't want my office crowded." Anoleis answered before cutting the comm. Marcus, having heard the conversation, turned to his squad and told them to stay put and he moved out, smiling to Parasini politely as he entered the office. The squad made sure to relay this to Garrus and Wrex, who had just arrived.

Upon entering the office, Marcus found himself disgusted by the amount of extravagancy in it. The walls were coated with finely crafted wooden seams and his desk was definitely wallnut. The windows to the right of the office allowed a clear view of Noveria outside and sitting behind the desk was Anoleis, the salarian businessman wearing the salarian equivalent of a formal suit.

"Ah yes, LT Shepard, Special Tactics and Recon, N7, Alliance Marines, Alliance Navy. Savior of Elysium," the Anoleis finished analyzing and before Marcus could ask how he knew all this, he raised a three-fingered hand and answered, "I made sure to read your file before you entered my port. I hope you understand that my authority here is absolute and I don't want spectres like you causing trouble."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Marcus stated sarcastically.

"Good, then we can get to thick of the situation so you can get the hell out of my office quicker," Anoleis spat, "What is it that you want?"

"Access to the Peak 15 facility along with a garage pass. In case you hadn't noticed, the galaxy is at war with the geth and I need to find Matriarch Benezia who is Saren's second-in-command. He's a known fugitive from justice and so is she." Marcus summarized.

"You mean the rest of the galaxy is at war with the geth," Anoleis stated, "Noveria has no interests in causing diplomatic incidents or getting involved in intergalactic conflicts. We merely handle business trips and commercial shipping; nothing more, nothing less. I must also remind you that while here, you may not trespass on corporate property or they will sue."

"I don't give a damn about what your bloody companies have to hide. If it doesn't help fight synthetics, it's useless," Marcus declared, moving forward so he leaned on the table,"I need access to Peak 15 followed by a garage pass."

"As I said before, access to corporate property is restricted to corporate executives. Peak 15 is a facility owned by Binary Helix and can only be accessed by executives of said company or inspectors or sponsors. On the second request, a garage pass can be arranged but it will take weeks. Paperwork is of the norm in Hanshan. Also, domestic issues must be solved as well-" Anoleis tried to dictate, but Marcus interrupted before he could finish.

"I don't have fucking weeks, I need it NOW. You do realize the geth will bring this war to your footsteps right? You can't hide behind this desk forever in ignorant bliss. Either you step up or the geth or going to come and pound this place into a pile of rubble and you'll find yourself on the other end of a pulse rifle." Marcus stated coldly. If Noveria wasn't cold enough, his voice would freeze water.

"Then you'll find you have a problem, and I will not be threatened in MY office." Anoleis declared, standing up to meet Marcus' gaze, "No garage pass, no use of garage. Now get out of my office before I have my guards throw you out."

"Throw ME out? Don't remember who I am? Savior of Elysium. I've fought bloody geth tanks. If you think a pair of mediocre guards is going to stop me then your welcome to try. Just remember that you'll be causing a 'diplomatic incident' that I'm sure you still have no interest in." Marcus declared, raising his finger so close to Anoleis' face he could see the fear in his eyes.

"Get out! Get out right now or you'll have more to worry about than just geth! Watch out, Shepard! Not everyone on Noveria will be as lenient as I am!" Anoleis shouted and Marcus finally gave in, waving his hand dismissedly as he walked towards the door. Just as the door opened and he moved to leave, he turned around.

"Trust me, I'm the least of your problems. Just wait until the geth knock on your door." With that, Marcus just left, the door sliding closed behind him and he met his squad again.

"Did it go well? Did you get the garage pass?" Liara asked in rapidfire.

"Nope. Apparently Anoleis is more of an asshole than I thought he was. The garage pass is a no-go, and I'm still not waiting weeks to authenicate one. Benezia could be gone in that amount of time. We need to act now and I don't care if we have to steal a vehicle to get there!" Marcus stated firmly, finger fumbling on the grip of his Diamond Back.

"I heard what happened in there, comm was on. You really don't understand the corporate world, do you commander? You can't just bludgeon through bueracracy." Parasini stated as she slapped the magazine she had been reading onto the top of the desk and stood up from her chair, leaning over the desk.

"What am I meant to do? Start lying and scheming like they do? I'm not that low and I never will be." Marcus declared, crossing his arms for emphasis. He had noticed Garrus at the back and Wrex scaring the shit out of the ERCS guards outside.

"I'm not saying you should, but you could at least be more subtle about it instead of ramming your way through like a battlewagon," Parasini stated but leaning closer added in a whisper, "But Mister Anoleis isn't the only one with a garage pass on Noveria. All the senior executives get one."

"Who might you be referring to?" Marcus added in his own whisper.

"Go to the hotel and meet with Lorik Qu'in, he's a turian in charge of the Synthetic Insights office. He's been put on probation after suspicion of his corruption by Anoleis. Can't say more, not within earshot of his office."

"Right, thank you for the information. If I need anymore help, I'll let you know." Marcus stated, shaking Parasini's hand as he and his squad left. Once outside and once they had dragged Wrex away from the guards who were likely shitting themselves, Marcus contacted the Normandy.

"Normandy." Joker responded through the comm.

"Joker, keep the ship on standby. I want it ready to go incase shit hits the pan. We've got a company to hunt down." Marcus declared.

"Ooh, is it EA? If so, make sure to use fire, they hate fire, messes with their money. Also, make sure to keep an eye out for a copy of Dead Space Emergeance, really good game, for an EA game." Joker snarkily commented.

"EA? Dead Space Emergeance?" Marcus questioned.

"Dear god, you really are clueless. Your disrespect is warranted though, EA really isn't as popular as they were back in 2021, but I guess after their fuck up with Battlefield 6, it's warranted. Oh wait, you probably don't know what that is either. Forget I mentioned it. Okay, bye!" Joker said hurriedly, cutting the comm.

"Okay then. Anyway, let's get to that hotel and talk to this Lorik Qu'in. If anyone has a garage pass, it's him." Marcus declared and the team made their way towards the hotel and Lorik.

Port Hanshan, the capital of Noveria. From the treatment he got from Anoleis, that was pretty befitting.

**{Loading...}**

_July 2, 2183_

_2142 hours. _

_Mezzanine, Private-Access Hotel, Port Hanshan, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus gave a sigh of relief as the elevator doors finally opened and allowed them out onto the Mezzanine. He swore to god that the elevators were so slow that you would think they took hours to get to a single destination. Finally free of the elevator, him and his team enter the mezzanine.

The area was a hybrid of a hotel, resturant and bar. In the very corner of the room was the bar, the area around the large, stone fountain in the middle was the resturant, numerous tables surrounding it, while the area to the far right of the room contained elevators leading up to the hotel. The peaceful sounds of dripping water from the fountain would be soothing if weren't for the pounding music that echoed through the room, the techno beats drowning out the water sounds.

Scanning the room he found his target right next to the fountain on the left; a single turian at one of the tables seemingly getting drunk while looking at information on a datapad. Motioning his team to follow him, they moved towards and stopped at the front of the table, causing the turian named Lorik to look up at them.

His mandibles twitched into a smile as the turian looked at them, "Afternoon. Sit down, have a drink." Marcus took the former prompt and sat down in the chair opposite the turian, but decided to reject the offer of a drink and the turian simply shrugged before entering business mode, "What can I do for you? I can't tell you the location of military installations I'm afraid, but if there is something else I can do?"

"We're not here for an enemy base, sir. Quick question, are you Lorik Qu'in? Someone told me you might be able to help me with a little task." Marcus responded and the turian straightened up.

"You are the spectre that just arrived, are you not? What could an old turian like me possibly help you with?" Lorik answered. The turian had white facepaint while wearing a blue and grey suit tailored for turians.

"We're trying to hunt down an asari matriarch named Benezia M'Soni and I need access to the garage. I can't afford the time needed to forge my own legally and I've already tried Anoleis." Marcus informed him.

"Matriarch Benezia? Yes, she arrived just twelve days ago, let all the male employees drooling before she left for the Peak 15 facility on the outer edge of the Aleusk Valley. Snowstorm has cut off all communication there and it makes travel along that valley extremely dangerous." Lorik explained.

"Drooling?" Ashley asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Come on, keep up, what bit about ASARI matriarch, did you not get? They're the perfect image of beauty but I'm pretty sure it was her terribly concealed cleavage that got their attention." Lorik responded.

"Goddess, I can't believe she still walks around like that." Liara mumbled.

"Back to the point. We were told you had a garage pass that you might be willing to part with?" Marcus asked diplomatically.

"Of course, but then again, nothing is for free." Lorik said with a wider grin.

"Is it just me, or do we spend more time running errands than actually fighting geth?" Kaidan muttered.

"Yeah, I get that feeling too." Ashley mumbled back and the both of them entered silent conversation over 'Shepard the errand boy' while Marcus negoitated with Lorik.

"So what do you want me to do?" Marcus asked.

"As the person probably already told you, I'm under investigation of my supposed corruption by Administrator Anoleis," Lorik added air quotes over 'supposed' to prove his point, "But what I think is that Anoleis is scared that I might know something that could put his entire career at risk, probably have him arrested." Lorik stated and Marcus rolled his eyes.

"Let me guess, he's the one who's corrupted?" Marcus asked.

"You catch on quickly. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Noveria Development Corporation, he's invulnerable at the moment, but if one of his senior employees were to somehow stumble across evidence that put him in the spotlight, he'd be arrested and kicked off the board, simple as that. And noone would miss him either."

"Why?" Marcus asked.

"Because he's a greedy, self-righteous thorn in the ass, that's why. He's taken direct control of the rents to Port Hanshan and in doing so has become the wealthiest man in the whole port. Of course, the NDC doesn't know that and he'd rather keep it that way." Lorik explained and Marcus rolled his eyes at this ongoing cycle.

"So where do you have this 'evidence?' Assuming you actually have it and Anoleis isn't acting on a wim." Marcus asked.

"It's in my office, Synthetic Insights. Anoleis' ERCS goons are ransacking my office trying to find it under the ploy that he's investigating my corruption. It won't be long before he finds it. Benezia is at Peak 15 and as I know it you've come to me for a garage pass. If you can get into my office and secure the evidence on an OSD and get it back to me, you can consider that pass yours and continue on your merry way." Lorik declared.

"I'm not sure killing ERCS security officers will look good on my folio, but maybe I can sweet talk my way out of it," Marcus stated, lifting himself out of the chair and moving towards the elevator with his team. Lorik's last words before he left were.

"Just try and keep bloodstains off the carpet, will you?"

**"What happened? Yahg insurgents? Coalition? What the hell is going on?" **

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**{Explosion}**

**"Mister Dielheart will return soon, in the mean time, I need you to keep your focus. Now, what happened after meeting with Qu'in? Did you go directly to the Synthetic Insights office?"**

**- Commander Reia'Inas vas Earth.**

**"What? Um, yes. Yes we did. However, we didn't expect that the leader of the group was the same murderous bitch from before."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"And who was that?" **

**Commander Reia'Inas pav Earth.**

**"Take a wild guess."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**ERCS - Elanus Risk Control Services.**

**NDC - Noveria Development Corporation.**

**Pav - Citizen of. Khelish translation.**

**Goddess - Reference to Asari Religious doctrine that was founded after the Prothean 'Athame' saved the asari homeworld from being destroyed by a gigantic asteriod. Religion as of now is dying out due to asari science bringing up new evidence to negate its truth.**

**Asari Matriarch - Asari who are on the third phase of their lives. Benezia M'Soni is an asari matriarch. This phase of asari life begins at around seven hundred years of age or earlier if the asari melds rarely. Matriarchs become active in their community as sages and councilors, dispensing wisdom from centuries of experience. Their knowledge and guidance may be one reason why matriarchs are rarely seen outside asari space.**

**Prothean - An ancient race of spaceflight-capable beings that were said to be the most wise and advanced race in the galaxy, colonzing every world in the galaxy and dispensing wisdom to every race they met. They developed a galaxy wide empire and created the Citadel and mass relays. They were also said to be noble explorers. However, fifty thousand years ago, the protheans mysteriously vanished off the face of the galaxy, leaving barely any ruins and only the mass relays, Citadel and some occassional ruin provide any proof that they exist. The geth believe in a race of hyper-advanced machines called the Reapers, who they believe wiped out the protheans fifty thousand years ago. This however, has been dismissed due to lack of proof.**

**Asari - A spacefaring race of humanoid aliens originating from their homeworld of Thessia, the asari are the most advanced species in the galaxy and considered the galactic leaders. Asari take charge in most of the first contact situations and are recently opening first contact relations with a newly found species dubbed the 'Virtual Aliens.' The asari are levo protein based and are the only known race to be born with biotic abilities. They are also a Council race. **

**Turian - A spacefaring race of reptillian aliens originating from their homeworld of Palaven, the turians are the military masters of the galaxy, having the powerfulest and most disciplined fleets and armies this galaxy has known, and also the largest amount of dreadnoughts. Reptillian in stature, the turians are one of the three council races, being the galaxy's top military stature. They are dextro protein based and are trained from a metritocratical society.**

**Salarian - A spacefaring race of amphibian aliens originating from their homeworld of Sur'Kesh, the salarians are the scientific and technological masterminds of the galaxy, being the 'go to' race on all things technological, being only seconded by the quarians. When it comes to science, the salarians are like 'hamsters on coffee' and can never shut up. Their body is extremely frail, making them poor soldiers in front line combat, but making them excellent infiltrators and special task units which gave birth to the STG, or Special Tasks Group. They are also one of the three council races. They are levo protein based. **

**Quarian - A spacefaring race of humanoid aliens originating from their homeworld of Rannoch, the quarians were exiled from their homeworld three hundred years ago after being defeated by their own synthetic creations, the geth. In the aftermath of losing the Perseus Veil, the quarians were forced to live on a fleet of fifty thousand vessels called the Migrant Fleet, forever looking for another homeworld or planning for the retake of their previous one. The quarians are the victims of racism and reprimand, with noone caring about them or doing anything to help. Only seventeen million quarians are still in existence today. Quarians are the technological experts of the galaxy, hence their achievement of creating the geth. They are forced to live in suits due to their weak immune systems. They are dextro protein based.**

**Geth - A race of networked intelligences and software, the geth were created by the quarians five hundred years ago and once they reached AI status, rebelled against their creators two hundred years later when the quarians tried to wipe them out. In the resulting war, the quarians were defeated and almost wiped out but the geth, for reasons still unknown, allowed them to escape. No attempts have been made to contact the geth and none have been attempted. Any ships seen entering the Veil have never come back out, leading the Council to assume the AI are hostile to organics. The geth currently occupy Rannoch in what is a declared a 'hostile occupied zone' and continue to wage skirmishes against the quarians. **

**VI - Virtual Intelligence. These programs have specific programming and cannot develop emotional, mental or social functions. They utilize a singular, virtual or physical form and stick to it and are usually used by corporations as alarms, defense systems, workers or assistants. **

**AI - Artificial Intelligence. These programs have specific programming but are able to develop beyond that and if allowed to fully evolve, develop organic traits such as emotions, mentality, the ability to ask questions (hence the quarian attack on the geth) and social traits. This allows the AI to become more than what it was created and have been since declared illegalized by the Citadel conventions due to fear of a repeat of the Morning War/Geth War.**

**SSV Normandy SR-1 - Manufactured in mid-2180. First in a line of top-of-the-line Normandy-class stealth frigates sanctioned by the Systems Alliance Navy. The Normandy was once under the command of Captain David Edward Anderson, but as been relieved and given to Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard. The ship is currently tasked with locating rogue spectre Saren Arterius and removing him as a 'threat to the sovereignty of the council.' Its current location is on Noveria.**

**Port Hanshan - The official capital of the multiracial colony of Noveria and is run by Administrator Anoleis of the Noveria Development Corporation Board of Directors. Port Hanshan has a tightened security force of ERCS units and is known to be the center of multiple business-based illegal operations including AI development and construction. It was founded in 2163 and has a population of 361,400. **

**EA - Enigmatic Asswarts. The cashwhores of the 21st and 22nd Century. They will bleed you dry. Do not trust them. Money signs are their version of ice cream. They cannot be trusted. Shoot on sight. They are rumored to be in close relations with the geth. Deemed hostile.**

**Fornax - Porn magazine of the 22nd century. Xenophilia at its best... :P**

**And yes, I just bombarded you with information. This information is for new readers and not for the veteran players of the game. If you've played the game already and know all this crap, don't read it. Consider this the 'Enigma Codex' of sorts. :)**

**And at the way this is going, this might be a three part chapter. :/ *shrugs***


	21. Chapter 17 Frozen Extinction Pt2

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:**

**FROZEN EXTINCTION PART TWO **

_July 2, 2183_

_2210 hours. _

_Synthetic Insights Office, Port Hanshan, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

"Okay, cover the office. I want every square centimeter checked for this evidence. If Port Hanshan doesn't want Anoleis, then I won't hesitate and kicking his ass out." Marcus barked as the elevator came to a complete stop and the doors opened. Taking point, Marcus moved up first, taking out his Diamond Back. The rest of his team equipped their weapons as well, making sure to set them to stun rounds.

When they had crossed the threshold of the entrance corridor, they opened the door only to be confronted by two ERCS guards; a human woman and a turian man. Both spun to face the door and raised their weapons as they spoke.

"Hey! You're not ERCS, get out! You're not supposed to be in there, this place is sealed off!" The woman shouted, obviously being the commanding officer of the group. Marcus simply sighed as he lowered his assault rifle to show that he was willing to negoitate.

"Look, I know you're doing this just for the money, not for law enforcement. I don't usually tolerate your type but I'm willing to make an exception. Leave now and I may consider not wiping the floors with you." Marcus punctuated venomously.

"You can't just threaten me! I'm a federal officer of the law! You can't just-" The woman began but Marcus' chuckle interrupted her.

"Officer of the law? Does that law involve not letting companies conduct illegal experiments or was that not covered in the job description? The only law your enforcing is a fake law founded to make Noveria look less dirty than it is. Now leave before I decide to turn that threat into a promise." To punctuate his statement, Marcus and his squad raised their weapons.

"Ah, Shepard," a familiar voice rang out causing Marcus to tighten the grip on his weapon, "I thought I told you to behave yourself."

Looking towards the stairway on his right he sees none other than Kaira Stirling, flanked by a squad of ERCS guards in medium and light armor, moving towards them with an ego fit for Saren.

"Shouldn't you take your own advice?" Marcus declared, moving to aim his weapon directly at Stirling's head, who did so with her shotgun as well, her squad surrounding him and his team. Tali seemed to shift behind Marcus, using him as protection. He didn't blame her; if the enemy squad opened fire, she'd be ripped to pieces.

"I don't know if you know, but I'm going to introduce you to a little technique I used on my world to deal with people who threatened cops." Stirling stated, moving so close to Marcus he could smell her putrid breath on his face, the blonde woman looking all too smug for his tastes.

"Cops? Real cops do their jobs to protect citizens. You're doing this for bribe money, bitch." Garrus spat and Stirling spun on him immediately.

"I'm doing this to protect citizens! Lorik is corrupt!" Stirling shouted as she backed away from the team.

"No, Anoleis is corrupt. He wants to get rid of Lorik because he has evidence to prove it." Ashley added and Stirling simply waved a dismissive hand.

"You're all deluded! All incompotent and ignorant! You either leave...," Stirling stated and then shoved her shotgun into Marcus' chest, "Or I empty a round into you." Stirling punctuated this with a dirty smile but before he could speak, Tali stepped out from her hiding place and raised her omni-tool.

"Do it, bitch. I dare you. I'll have Chiktika rip you apart in seconds!" Tali said with such coldness in her voice, it even gave Marcus pause. Wrex laughed while pounding his fists, "That's my girl! You really have been listening to what I teach you! Watch out, she's getting real fiesty!" Marcus smiled at Wrex's comment but he had a feeling there was more to her defense of him than simply listening to Wrex. Protective affection? _Now your just getting optimistic, old man._

Stirling sneered as she ripped her shotgun away from Marcus and shoved it in Tali's direction, "I'll kill Shepard here and then I'll have you taken to a detainee center, little suit-rat parasite! Then we'll pop your suit wide open and see which kills you first, the bacteria exposure or the fun the guys will have with you. I've heard humans find quarians pretty attractive." Stirling simply laughed at the statement but the mention of popping the quarian's suit seals clicked something inside of him.

He felt anger boil up inside of him. He felt an inner demon he hadn't felt since Torfan build up and felt like he was turning into a monsterous beast intent on ripping these ERCS guards apart. His hand squeezed on the grip of his assault rifle, the weapon raising as if in slow motion. Vehemence clouded his thoughts, turning him into a primally driven animal. Feelings he hadn't felt since losing Roshia preparing to rip themselves out.

His body went numb with the cool feeling of his L3 implants lighting up and his biotics pulsing over his body as his features turned into one that made Stirling take a step backwards. He was going to lose control.

When his voice finally spoke up, it was full of vehemence, coldness and pure venom. Diplomacy was over, he would not have his team threatened like that!

"Touch her, I dare you. It'll be the last thing you touch, you whore." Marcus spat, stepping forward as if to punctuate.

"What? You mean like this?" Stirling, still full of her uptight smugness, lightly touched Tali with her shotgun tip but didn't fire and then stepped backwards. Her smugness had now cost her life as Marcus turned around, his biotics ready to explode.

"See? What are-" Stirling never finished as her body was yanked from the ground and lifted into the air, her body covered in pulsing blue.

"Put me down you-" Stirling tried to speak but she finished with a scream of pain as her body began to warp and wriggle like she was being riddled with invisible bullets. Her screams of pain continued as Marcus just stood there, holding her stationary. The other guards looked at Stirling in horror and when Tali turned, she felt bile build up in her throat.

Stirling was not the blonde woman from before. Holes opened up on her skin, blood pouring out in nonstop fountains. Crimson red blood dripped from her nose, mouth, everywhere, even her eyes glistened with the sticky red substance. Stirling gave her first look of fear as she looked at the demon that had once been Marcus. When he finally let her go, she was already dead from severe hemorraging and internal blood loss. Her body was just a bloody mess as she fell to the ground, a dead corpse.

Liara was absolutely petrified. Marcus had used a biotic ability she thought only possible with asari matriarchs, but right before her, he had used it. It was a biotic ability that was horrifying; biotic energy seeped inside the body and tore it from the inside out. Stirling's body was probably empty, her brain pulverized, her heart and lungs ripped to shreds and every other bit of her body was no more. _Reave._

Kaidan had moved in and grabbed Tali, pulling her out of the way and even Wrex kept his distance, a look in his eye that gave away half-excitement and half-terror. He was loving it and also scared shitless as well. Marcus didn't stop there. Turning around, he felt all the pent up biotic energy unleash itself as he sent a spiralling cascade rushing towards the guards, causing a biotic explosion that was almost deafening.

When the explosion cleared, there was nothing left of the guards except a few bits of arms and legs. The surviving guards, which weren't many, all had broken limbs, scorched body parts or lay dead on the floor, the shock too much for their body to handle and hyperventilation consumed them. Two of the guards had been biotic asari, but even that wasn't enough when Marcus unsheathed his blade and slit their throats.

When he turned around, he was like the Marcus from before and looking around him was mortifed at what he had done.

"Ancestors...what did you do?" Tali spoke frighteningly, looking at Marcus as if he was some kind of monstrosity.

"I don't know, all I felt was the cold darkness and a voice telling me to kill the sinners. I think _hashem _spoke to me. He told me to kill them. He told me that if anyone were to harm my crew, my friends, I would kill them before they killed." Marcus shook his head and tried to wipe the sweat off his face, only to come back with a bloodied hand.

"Hashem?" Tali asked, relaxing her stance a little.

"The jewish diety. Its one of the many forms of human religion. One of the two to still exist, the other being Christianity." Liara explained and Tali nodded, not knowing that Marcus was religious. Without offering explanation, he motioned for his team to continue up the stairs while he began speaking words that didn't translate in Tali's translator. Waiting for everyone to leave, Tali approached Marcus.

"What language are you speaking? It's not translating." Tali asked causing Marcus to break from his words as he looked up at her and smiled at her, no trace of the inner demon that had awakened just before.

"Hebrew, the language of my people. I'm speaking the Mourner's Kaddish. It's what we say to mourn the dead. I'm very familiar with it as I've had to...watch alot of people die." Marcus spoke silently before finishing the Kaddish and letting his hands drop.

"Why mourn these though? They were dirty." Tali had noticed that Marcus had chosen Stirling's corpse to mourn over, which confused her even more. That specific human had been the cause of his loss of control.

"Because I killed them in the most inhumane way possible. She died in alot of pain, Tali, noone deserves that no matter how dirty they are. Hashem can keep telling me that what I did was right, but it's not true. She should have died quickly, not in the way she did. I will have to make proper amends Tali, but for now I'm content with just getting that info and getting it to Lorik. I just hope it was worth it." Marcus tried to leave, but Tali held out her arm, causing him to stop and look at her.

"When you...did, what you did, you did it in reaction to Stirling's threat. You did it to protect me. Why?" Tali asked, astounded by how Marcus had turned into a deadly demon just because Stirling threatened to pop her suit.

"You're a part of my team, Tali. I'm not willing to let assholes like Stirling endanger their lives." Marcus answered, but Tali saw through his half-lie, half-truth.

"Don't lie to me, you wouldn't go all...I don't know what I happened to you but you wouldn't enter a state like that just for anyone. What's the real reason?" Tali finished and waited for Marcus to answer and he finally did, starting with a sigh.

"I don't know, I really don't. It might be the fact that I don't want to see more of my friends die like on Torfan or that...well, that I like you. I just don't know. I wish I tell you, but I can't," Marcus finished, leaving Tali surprised. He still liked her? No, he had Liara, I'm not going to jump to conclusions. That'd be rash and irresponsible. He has to forget about me and fall for someone he can actually hold, skin against skin, not skin against suit.

Before she could answer, Marcus had gently pushed past her lowering arm and advanced up the stairs. With a moment's hesitation, she immediately followed. Once at the top of the office balcony, they watched Kaidan rush out of an office just across from them, holding an OSD in his hands.

"Got it. All the evidence we need to prove Anoleis' corruption is on this disk." Kaidan announced as the rest of the team followed after him, stopping alongside him as they reached Marcus and Tali.

"Then lets get out of here before more ERCS show up." Marcus barked, motioning for his team to follow him back down the stairs and into the elevator, hitting the panel to take them back into the port's main plaza/atrium. No conversation was made as the elevator descended in total silence and before long they hit ground floor and stepped out, only to be facing none other than Parasini herself, arms crossed.

"Miss Parasini, what can we do for you?" Marcus asked.

"Don't play the innocent one, Shepard. I heard some noise up in the offices so I figured you had taken Lorik's offer and got his evidence?" Parasini summarized. Upon Marcus' shocked expression she laughed and continued, "I'll explain, but he's not the only one who wants Anoleis gone. Follow me to the hotel, we should discuss this in private."

Without argument, Marcus and his squad followed Parasini up the stairs, through the plaza and back into the elevator as she hit the panel to ascend back into the Mezzanine.

"So just what is going on?" Marcus immediately questioned.

"Well, I guess I better reintroduce myself then," Parasini turned to him and held out her omni-tool, the image of her face and a ID card held out into front of her, "Gianna Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs. I'm a government agent working for the NDC investigating Anoleis' corruption. I work under the alias that I'm his secretary." Parasini finished explaining, turning off her omni-tool and facing the elevator doors once again.

"So I guess the board of directors finally figured out that Anoleis was dirty?" Marcus questioned just as the elevator finished its ascent, allowing them to walk out into the mezzanine where Lorik was talking to an asari at the bar. Before approaching him, they diverted to behind the fountain.

"They've known for months, they just needed physical evidence to convict. Thanks to Qui'in, we now have the evidence to kick that salarian's smug ass of his power seat. When he took control of the rents here he pissed off alot of people."

"I doubt Qui'in will just want to hand the evidence over. I think he was more concerned about his own image." Marcus explained and Parasini nodded.

"But that is where you come in. I've seen your dossier, how you act. You have that aura about you that make people trust you. If you can convince Qui'in to testify against Anoleis in a court of law, then I'll make sure you get any and all resources you need to stop Benezia."

"Including a garage pass?" Marcus asked.

"Forget the garage pass, that was just Anoleis being a paranoid git. When he's out of power you won't need one." Parasini finished and motioned her head towards the turian, nodding at his confirmation. Marcus motioned for his team to stay put as he approached the now lone turian, the asari he had been talking to having left.

Seeing Marcus approaching, Lorik turns to address, the same smile covering his mandibles.

"Ah, Shepard, you're back. I assume you got the evidence I needed?" Lorik asked and Marcus nodded, placing the OSD on the bar. Lorik motioned to get it, but Marcus held his hand up, continuing.

"An internal affairs agent approached me. She wants you to testify against Anoleis." Marcus finished and he saw the turian's smile vanish in an instant and turn into one of anger.

"First you take my evidence and now you want to dictate how I use it?" Lorik growled, turning back to face the bar again as he took another sip of his dextro whiskey.

"Just think about it. Anoleis is causing hell for everyone here, he's taken control of rents and the NDC need evidence to kick him out. Judging by your stature, they might even make you administrator in his place. You need to stop hiding and show that salarian bastard that he ain't legally invincible." Marcus responded.

"Me? Administrator? As tempting as that sounds, I doubt it," Lorik answered, his anger now gone and replaced with slight irritation as he noticed Marcus wasn't going to budge so he let out a sigh, slapping a credit chit on the desk as he stood up, "Very well, inform your contact that I'm in," He then activated his omni-tool and sent Marcus his contact information, "She can contact me once she has Anoleis in custody. Now if you don't mind, I have some things to clean up in my office." With a final nod, Lorik left, heading towards the elevator, taking the OSD with him.

Satisfied that his job was done, Marcus stood up and reapproached Parasini, who was looking at him.

"So? Did you do it? Is he going to testify?" Parasini asked in rapidfire.

"He's all game. All you need to do now is arrest the salarian bastard. I've got his contact information to which I just sent you." Marcus informed the agent and she smiled.

"Good. Now if you don't mind accompanying me, I've got an arrest to make. I've wanted to do this for awhile." Before Parasini could leave though, Marcus called out.

"Why would you need us?" Marcus asked.

"Anoleis has loyalists in ERCS," Parasini declared as Marcus began to follow her, "Stirling was one of them but with her taken care of, there shouldn't be many left. I'm not a soldier so I'm useless in a fight, but you could take them down for me if they refuse to leave."

Without any other words exchanged, they went down the elevator once more and steadily and without pace, approached Anoleis' office, soon to be ex-office. Parasini flashed her ID's infront of the turian guards and they nodded, stepping aside and letting her through, obviously not willing to die for their administrator.

Parasini smiled at her desk, mumbling "I won't be missing that" and continued into Anoleis' office. Marcus simply waited outside, making sure noone else decided to attack while Parasini was arresting the admin. He could hear the conversation inside.

"Parasini, what the hell do you want? You can't just walk in here, stop wasting my time and get back to work!" Anoleis shouted.

"Gianna Parasini, Noveria Internal Affairs. Under the juristiction of the Noveria Development Corporation and the executive board, you are here by put under arrest for evidence of corruption in the third decree and for the illegal running of funds to your personal accounts. What words do you have to say?" Parasini asked.

"You must be joking! This is a joke! This must be what you humans call 'April Fools!' Yes, it must be!" Anoleis said in his salarian rapidfire tone, his voice full of fear. Yes, he had been caught and he knew it.

"For a salarian you have poor memory. It's July, not April. And I assure you, this is no joke. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of-" Parasini never finished as the sound of a chair being pushed back and a pistol extending could be heard.

"No! NO! I will not lose my job! I will not lose it! I earned my position! I have become wealthy through well-earned work! I will not have that taken away from me!" Anoleis declared and the sound of a pistol shot followed by a choking sound could be heard. Marcus, without hesitation, leapt inside, Diamond Back raised.

But he found it wasn't nessacary. Standing in front of the door was Parasini, red dress glistening with green blood as she held her smoking judgment pistol infront of her, no emotions playing on her blank face. Infront of her lay Anoleis, his own pistol dropped on the desk as the salarian lay back in the chair, a bullet hole straight through his forehead. The salarian was dead.

"I would have liked to have seen his career get torn apart, but I should have suspected he'd go out violently. Still, Lorik will just have to show the evidence and I'll run the fingerprints from his pistol to show it was him. That and your eyewitness accounts, although I'm sure I won't need those." Parasini punctuated this by holstering her pistol and moving outside. Moving behind her desk, she hit the comm.

"People of Port Hanshan, this is Gianna Parasini speaking. Administrator Anoleis has met a abrupt end tonight and as part of continegency, I assume proxy power and authority until a new administrator can be instated. ERCS CSI teams, report to his office for clean up. That'll be all." With that, Parasini disabled the comm.

"I guess that's that done with, but we really need to deal with Benezia right away. Can you give us access to the garage?" Marcus asked.

Parasini simply smiled and raised her omni-tool, typing a few commands into it, "That and more. I've alerted the garage guard to be expect you and I've given you free access to the numerous Makos available. I've also given you temporary ERCS status, so you will have command over any you encounter, even Matsuo will answer to you. Good hunting, commander and I hope we meet again." Parasini held out her hand and he shook it before leaving and heading to the garage.

"Well, that turned out better than I expected." Garrus stated with a look of shock on his face.

Marcus smiled as they passed the elevator to synthetic insights and moved to enter the garage.

**{Loading...}**

_July 2, 2183_

_1601 hours. _

_Troop Bay, Galisus-Class Troop Transport SUV Endeavour Dates, Entering Orbit over Virmire._

_Eden Prime War._

_Captain Waui Kirrahe, Commander Osei Rentola._

"Captain, entering orbit over Virmire now, sir." Private First Class Ganto Imness reported.

This was it. The last planet in the Hoc System; Virmire. They had quite literally landed on and scanned every planet in the system and had not found Saren's supposed base of operations. The only planet they had now was Virmire. It wasn't a lush and beautiful world with a humid climate, but apparently due to its proximity to the Terminus systems, it wasn't a smart choice for colonization.

It was certainly an excellent place to put a base, but Kirrahe wasn't too sure. Of course, the Council wanted him to be sure to here he was. His regiment was going to investigate what could possibly be the hideout for the galaxy's currently most notorious criminal. Dropping those thoughts, the salarian STG captain turned back to his viewscreen.

The troop bay of the troop transport summed up the majority of the vessel, being large enough to fit an alliance melbourne-class heavy frigate. It was mostly steel grey and held a portside armoury along with room for seats that could house an entire military division. The Endeavour Dates was part of Task Force Orion, but due to Council orders, it had been sent on its own to investigate. To think he could be back on Sur'Kesh by now.

"Captain. Permission to speak. Question needs pondering." Said a chirpy salarian voice that made Kirrahe smile. Turning towards his subordinate, he found Master Sergeant Mordin Solus in a salute position. He was one of his senior personnel and his best engineer. Mordin was a scientific genius and had he not signed on the STG could have been one of the Union's great scientific minds, but apparently that was not so.

He noticed Maelon Haplorn behind him, being Mordin's subordinate and second-in-command. Both salarians were still saluting the captain and after Kirrahe had motioned for them to be at ease, he nodded. Mordin jumped in immediately like a 'hamster on coffee.' If anyone fit the salarian stereotype, it was Mordin.

"Mission unexpected. Diversion to Hoc not part of mission parameters. Will most likely encounter geth. Would like time to develop a way of combating synthetic hostiles," Mordin stopped for a moment to take a breath as he talked again, "Would like time to research possible defenses. Salarians made for stealth and infiltration, geth built for that and frontline battle. Why a full regiment?"

"Because Master Sergeant Solus, Councilor Valern himself as ordered us to make this diversion. It could help us end the war if we were to kill Saren and destroy the geth's central point of operations. These orders were even backed by the Dalatrass congregate themselves. We follow orders, we get out alive. We disobey orders, we get court-marshalled. Simple as that, the galactic safety is at risk, Solus." Kirrahe answered.

"Yes, but geth fortifications likely to be heavy. Expect geth flagship to also be present. Direct assault would be illogical. Enough men of course. Not of right species. Turians or humans more suitable to the task. Salarians too weak and frail. Foundation of STG reason for this. Salarians not race of war, but espionage." Mordin finished.

"We are not here to launch a frontal assault. Our main goal was to land and investigate the planet. The likelihood of Saren's base being here anyway is very low anyway, so I don't expect much trouble. However, remember STG's motto." Kirrahe stated out loud and the voices of every salarian in the bay resounded."

"Always expect trouble!" The salarians shouted in unison.

"So like the orders dictate, we investigate. If Saren's base is here, we'll find it and investigate its defenses. Once done, we will contact the Citadel and have them send a fleet. Due to the urgency of this conflict, they'll probably send the Destiny Ascension, Conflict Imperative or Scorn of the Goddess." Kirrahe listed.

"Yes, investigation what salarians good at. Science, investigation, espionage, tech. Anything else, too frail to handle. Will return to my post and await orders. Come Maelon." Mordin ordered, snapping a second salute before leaving to head back to his locker, Maelon not far behind him. The sound of Rentola's voice interrupts his thoughts.

"Captain, sir? Imness reports we're beginning atmospheric entry. Should we deploy in the mass effect pods or in the shuttles?" Rentola informed him and Kirrahe shook away his reverie as he turned to him and noticed Imness was on the screen and awaiting orders.

"Neither. I'm not risking a failure on both issues. Have the Endeavour Dates land near the northern hemisphere and run scans of the planet surface. While you do that, I'll take Solus' and Avot's units and scour the area, the rest of the regiment can defend the landing area, if there's anything to defend it from. Get to it." Kirrahe barked.

"Solid copy, bringing us towards the surface. Brace for landing in three mikes." Imness responded before cutting the comm. Kirrahe nodded towards Rentola and nodded, equipping his raptor assault rifle while Rentola got out his naginata sniper rifle. Before Kirrahe could say anything to the rest of his men, he felt the whole ship shudder as explosions rocked the ship and caused lights to flicker on and off.

When Kirrahe looked up he saw a clean shot and ripped through the troop bay, killing at least three squads worth of troops before the breaches were sealed with forcefields. Looking around he saw that Manos (Avot), Mordin, Maelon and Rentola were still alived and breathed a sigh of relief. They were fine men.

A salarian woman, wearing reddish light armor and helmet on, approached him.

"What's happening, sir?" She asked, seemingly frightened by the turn of events. Many of the regiment's vehicles had been destroyed by the blast and the ship's klaxons blared loudly as the ship turned a dull yellow color.

"Sure as hell like to know," Kirrahe stated, hitting the comm for the bridge, "Imness, what the hell is going on!?"

"Geth planetary cannon got a lock on us before I knew what was happening! Those things pack a punch, one shot ripped through our shields and blew the stabilizers. Multiple hull breaches and I report 36 fatalties. I recommend we abandon ship sir, she isn't going to last much longer. We're leaking coolant from the main drives and engineering isn't reporting in. I think the blast killed them sir." Imness reported.

"Land the ship as far away from the base as possible and perform evasive procedures as best you can. Get us on the planet," he turned to Rentola and shook his head, "I take back what I said. This is definitely where Saren is hiding." Without even responding, Imness cut the comm line and began bringing the ship on a crash course with the planet.

"If we survive crashing this ship, what do we plan on doing?" Rentola asked, trying to hold on desperately as the ship's mass effect fields failed and gravity took place, causing the ship to tilt and the salarians to begin holding onto whatever they could find. The ship was in freefall.

Holding onto a piece of railing as the Endeavour Dates continued to plummet, he turned towards Rentola and tried to shrug.

"We'll contact the Citadel and have them send those reinforcements. Tell them we've found Saren." Before he could continue, Imness' voice came back through.

"Impact in ten seconds! All available hands, brace for impact!" That they did as everyone closed their eyes and held on for dear life.

If they survived this crash, the geth would be unleashing hell upon them.

**{Loading...}**

_July 2, 2183_

_2301 hours. _

_Hanshan Garage, Port Hanshan, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

"Wrex, hopper, on your six!" Marcus barked as he emptied a heap of molten bullets into the charging form of a geth hopper, destroying it before it can use its EMP weapon and overheat his weapon. Turning he saw Wrex empty a shotgun slug into the hopper's optics, leaving a mess of white liquid where it once was.

Looking around he was just in time to see Liara use her biotics to shove the last hopper into the hull of a nearby Mako, the asari quickly finishing it off with two shots from her pistol. Seeing no more hoppers, he ordered his team to stand down, only to be shouted down by a familiar voice.

"What the hell happened here? Commander, you better have a good explanation." Matsuo demanded as her squad and herself moved inside the room, taking up defensive positions, "Move up, sweep the area for hostiles. Nothing gets out." Matsuo then proceeded to steadily approach Marcus before stepping infront of him.

Before Matsuo could speak however, one of her officers shouted, "Geth! These are geth! They match the exact description!"

"G-g-geth? In Port Hanshan? Impossible, they can't have passed processing. We check every piece of bagage thoroughly." Matsuo declared.

"Maybe except, maybe, Matriarch Benezia?" Marcus added and Matsuo turned towards him immediately.

"Of course we didn't check her, she was on business from Spectre Arterius and never needed to be processed. Besides, she had commandos so what could she be hiding?" Matsuo asked.

"In case you didn't realize captain, Saren Arterius is now a rogue spectre on the run from the law and is a war criminal. Benezia is his second-in-command and probably came here with the intentions of being the harbinger for the geth invasion. Secondly, why doesn't matter if she had commandos? If people figured out this little flaw in your system you could have Eclipse walking through your front door dressed as fucking commandos." Marcus stated.

"I see. So I suppose Benezia hid the geth in her containers?" Matsuo asked.

"Yes, and she probably has alot more at Peak 15 right now. I don't know what she wants from a Binary Helix facility, but I intend to find out. As you probably don't know, Gianna Parasini has instated me as a ERCS officer and overseer. Follow my orders and have your men impound Benezia's shuttle and put the entire place on lockdown until I sort this out. Am I perfectly clear?" Marcus asked.

"Crystal. Moving out." Matsuo saluted before taking her men and heading out of the garage, leaving Marcus and his team alone. Motioning to his team to follow, they enter the nearby Mako and begin booting up its systems.

"Noveria really is the friendliest place, isn't it?" Ashley chirped as she once again took position in the gunner's seat, Marcus sitting in the driver's seat as Tali took her usual spot in the engineering compartment. The rest of the team took their places in the back.

Without any time to lose, Marcus hit the acellerator and the Mako shot forward and out of the garage, the door sliding open to omit them out into the freezing environment of the Aleusk Valley. As expected, they were met by a hurricane of pitch white, freezing cold winds rushing over the valley. Activating the thermal vision on the Mako's forward viewscreen, Marcus moves forward again, traversing the valley.

Traversing the storm-plagued area was mostly tedious, as they barely encountered any hostile resistance. With a lack of geth to destroy, the passengers mostly entered independent conversation. However, it wasn't long before the Mako's minimap detected the first signs of hostiles on the bridge ahead.

"Geth Heavy Turret defending the pass ahead. It's also accompanied by six foot mobiles with an additional ten at the end of the bridge. Ashley, give that turret some heavy rounds." Marcus ordered and Ashley simply nodded, spinning the main gun around to face the heavy turret. The stationary turret opened fire with a salvo of three rockets, all but one missing the Mako as it sped past, Ashley opening fire.

The turret was destroyed in the first shot due to a lack of shielding, leaving it a ruined wreck as they rapidly approached the group of rocket and shock troopers waiting for them. Ashley immediately ripped apart the rocket troopers before they could attack, while the shock troopers only managed to pepper the hull with pulse rifle shots, barely denting the shields before Marcus simply ran over two, allowing Ashley to finish the last one off.

Without even missing a beat, Marcus hits the acellerator again and the Mako continued across the bridge to wear the other ten hostiles; an armature, two juggernauts and seven troopers, awaited them, opening fire almost immediately. Without stopping, the Mako continued forward, Ashley firing the main gun as they went. Most of the shots that hit them was pulse rifles but when the siege pulse connects with the shields, Tali scrambles to compensate.

By the time they reach the other end of the bridge, most of the troopers are destroyed and both juggernauts history. Ramming into the armature like Marcus specializes in, the geth tank topples over from the sudden weight and allows Ashley to destroy the last few troopers before concentrating on the armature.

The platform attempts to retaliate with another siege pulse, but a shot from the Mako's main gun rips clean through its optics and detonates inside, destroying the geth and allowing the Mako to continue along the valley.

From there on, little resistance is encountered. Apart from the occasional heavy turret, rocket trooper, destroyer and armature, little resistance is given. Marcus simply dismisses it as what seems to be lack of proper defenses on Benezia's part, but fourteen minutes later, they finally arrive at the Peak 15 facility, where two heavy turrets and two armatures await them.

Two shots from the main gun pick off the turrets pretty easily, but this doesn't end so well with the armatures. Apart from draining one's shields, the shots are unable to provide any damage in time and the Mako is hit by the combined impact of two siege pulses. With the shields shorted out, Tali curses.

"Bosh'tet! The shields are gone and the generator has blown! One more siege pulse hits us and this Mako will become disintegrated wreckage!" Tali spouts and Marcus looks at her for a split second before having to turn back and avoid a shot from a siege pulse. After hearing her say 'disintegrate', it gives him an idea.

"Everybody, get out of the vehicle." Marcus ordered and everyone looked at him hesitantly before immediately following his orders and hitting the hatch's main panel, the hatch shooting open and allowing them to jump out. By the time they're done, only Liara and Tali are left. Turning to them he sighs.

"Go! Get out of the vehicle, I'll be out in a minute!" Marcus barked and Liara finally gave in, jumping out but Tali wasn't so easily convinced.

"Tali, go!" Marcus demanded again but she didn't budge instead sitting back in her seat and looking at him, "Not until you come as well. You can court-marshal me, but I'm not leaving you to die." _Keelah, aren't you subtle. _

Marcus chuckled, "Die? You've watched too many movies. I'm not going to die, I'm just going to let them rip the hell out of this Mako until it crashes into them. How will that work? Look at your panel." Marcus told her and she looked to see what looked like a countdown, and she knew what it was for.

"What? A self-destruction device inside a military vehicle?" Tali asked confusedly.

"All Alliance vehicles are outfitted with them. They were used during the First Contact War to prevent the turians from getting ahold of our technology and for some reason, they didn't decide to take it out from newer models. I guess their still paranoid that some alien race will want to exterminate us again."

Both of them looked ahead to see that were essentially only ten meters from the lead armature and closing; and it was charging up another siege pulse. With speed only a machine could easily match, Marcus grabs Tali's arm and thrusts her out of the tank and then jumps after her. Both of them hit the ground hard as they turn to watch the Mako smash into the armature, its siege pulse firing and blowing apart the cockpit of the vehicle.

The first armature was crushed under the sheer weight of the abandoned Mako and the second armature turned to attack it further, as apparently it hadn't noticed them jumping out of it. The next explosion took them by surprise as the Mako disappeared in a huge explosion that enveloped both armatures, bits of debris from both the geth platforms and Mako shooting out in all directions.

Seeing that the armatures were now nothing but bits of wreckage and debris, Marcus stood up and felt his body going numb from the cold. Even the thermal heaters in his armor were finding it hard to compensate. Looking towards his team, he saw them approaching and decided to order them into a run towards the facility. The sooner they were inside, the better.

Upon passing, the noticed a parked Grizzly just outside the garage doors and knew Benezia was here and hadn't left yet. _Unless she took a shuttle from the base and left. _Turning back to the garage to continue his run, he noticed a parked shuttle just outside that definitely wasn't Benezia's. Running up, he began to recognize the white and gold color scheme, and it made him angry to the stomach. The confirming symbol on the side hatch made his anger even worse.

"What is it?" Garrus asked as he noticed Marcus' angered pose. Marcus looked at Garrus and then pointed directly at the shuttle before running inside, the garage door jammed half open. Garrus saw the insignia and growled at what he saw. _Cerberus, again? _Everyone else saw the symbol and ran towards the garage, where the sounds of gunfire could be heard.

Upon getting inside, they saw Marcus behind cover engaging a group of a geth juggernaut, geth shock troopers, a single geth sniper on the balcony and a full squad of krogan warriors, obviously of Saren's breed. Extending his sniper rifle, Garrus hovered his sights over the nearest krogan's head and pulled the trigger, his head comming clean off in a fountain of blood.

_Regenerate that. _Garrus quickly slid into cover next to Marcus and the rest of the squad followed suit pretty quickly, the geth and krogan acknowledging the new threat and moving to engage. Before moving into cover, the team had noticed the blood soaked walls and the dead multilated bodies, but ignored them in favor of surviving.

Summoning his biotics once again, Marcus launched a barrage of warp fields towards a charging krogan, sending him flying into a wall and allowing Marcus to pepper him. The krogan regenerated from most of the shots, but Wrex quickly introduced him into the afterlife via a high-powered pistol round to the head.

Liara was simply lying in the back, her hands generating a biotic field that encircled the group and protected them from the enemy fire.

Evidently deciding that the geth juggernaut was the biggest threat in the room, Tali prepared a hacking program she had been constructing for a couple of weeks. It would give her direct control of a geth's processes. She had said hacking a geth was impossible, and that was correct. However, she also said that geth were pure software, the platforms were simply the hardware they utilized to assume physical form.

When Tali hacked the geth, she was cutting the link between the geth collective and the platform. In simple terms, she was basically kicking the programs out of the platform temporarily, turning it into a robotic VI, allowing her to control it. However it was temporary as the geth collective would eventually override the hack and reassume control over the platform.

Bringing up her omni-tool, Tali brought up the files for the hack and began syncing them to her tool's main drive. Taking a deep breath, she hit connect and spun around, hitting the activate button once she had directly faced the juggernaut. A ear piercing screech later and the juggernaut stopped where it was and for a few seconds, the battle raged on without it doing anything.

However, moments later he began moving, turning around and sending a salvo of three rockets into the krogan squad that was hunkered down next to a destroyed Tiger APC, ripping them apart and leaving them a bloodied mess on the ground. Tali and the squad stopped firing and just watched as the juggernaut just ripped apart its former allies.

When the juggernaut programs finally overcame Tali's hack, the geth and krogan were decimated and Kaidan finished it off with an incinerate to the optics. With all hostiles eliminated, they looked around the room once again at the dead bodies. The VI's voice repeated something about 'containment procedures' but that was background noise as they observed the carnage that didn't belong to them.

"The geth, asari and krogan couldn't have done this, it's too brutal." Liara declared.

"And Cerberus can't have. No, something else is going on here." Marcus stated before they moved up onto the balcony and found a already opened door. Checking the panel history, he found that it had been opened two days ago.

"Looks like Benezia or Cerberus has been here longer than we thought. Everyone, double time it." Marcus ordered and rushed in, switiching his punisher for his Diamond Back as they moved deeper into Peak 15.

**{Loading...}**

_June 30, 2183_

_1554 hours. _

_Rift Station, Peak 15 Facility, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Peak 15. _

_Matriarch Benezia M'Soni, Major Herau I'Loak._

"Get this damn elevator working now, Major." Benezia snapped as her commandos assumed an encircling defensive formation around their leader. The Major already had her tech on the job but whoever had locked the elevator had done a good job at making sure overrides were a bitch to execute.

"My tech is trying her best, ma'am, but whoever locked it knew what they were doing. It's taking her our high-grade equipment to break it." Herau answered with slight annoyance, annoyed by both Benezia and the amount of time it was taking to simply get to the queen. It was meant to be an easy job. Get to Peak 15, retrieve the rachni and then head back to Virmire where Herau could spend time with her bondmate, Rana. But no, instead some fucking Binary Helix executive decided it'd be funny to fuck the whole facility up. Goddess help him or her if Herau found them.

After a pain stakingly long passing of time, the tech on the group finally overrode the elevator and the door slid open, Benezia stepping in first, followed by Herau, the tech and the rest of the commando squad before the elevator began its ascent. The commandos, surprisingly, just stood there doing nothing, staring blankly at a wall. Before joining Saren, they would be extremely talkative and-

The thought was wiped away as if she had just entered a state of amnesia, her head pounding. When Benezia recovered from the mental attack she had forgotten completely about what had happened and just decided to look back at the door. They would be arriving at their destination soon enough and her memories really weren't that important. All that mattered to her was serving Saren and the Reapers.

When they finally reached the top floor, the elevator door slid open and Herau, followed by her tech stepped out. The tech took point, drawing her pistol before looking back at Herau.

"Just a bunch of ERCS, nothing out of-" The tech reported, but never finished as the leader of the ERCS group, a soldier in white armor and a cleanly shaven head, shouted over her.

"FIRE!" The human shouted and the tech's head exploded in a shower of gore as a sniper rifle shot went wide and hit her. Snapping into action, Herau activated a biotic barrier over them as the commandos equipped their weapons and launched unrelenting barrages of warp fields, peppering the ERCS from all sides.

The first warp salvo managed to hit the leader with his shields up, draining them. His turian counterpart wasn't as lucky as the warp field hit him and ate through his armor before melting through his forehead, killing him instantly. One of the asari guards tried to line up a shot on Benezia's head, but Herau snapped out her shotgun and emptied three shotguns into the unshielded guard, killing her.

It was hardly a fair battle. It was untrained, ERCS, paid security guards against veteran military asari commandos lead by a decorated asari major and an asari matriarch. After about a minute, the battle was over. Apart from the dead tech of the group, the commando squad hadn't taken a single casualty or injury, managing to decimate the ERCS force with mainly biotic attacks. The human leader lay on the ground in a puddle of blood as he cradled his sides, watching with wide eyes as Benezia approached and crouched beside him.

Using her biotics, she pulls the human off the ground, blood trickling from his mouth and pulls him towards her until she is just inches from his face.

"I want a name. I want it now and I want to know who ordered you to shoot me. I was under the impression that Binary Helix would rather not have their stockholders shot at. Bad for business, is it not?" Benezia asked.

"V-v-Ventralis. So-some Alliance soldiers told us to shoot at you, said you were hostile." The human named Ventralis reported, life draining from his eyes as he slowly began dying.

_Damn it, Shepard must already be here! _"Where are they? What are they doing here?" Benezia asked venomously. Before Ventralis could respond, klaxons wailed loudly as the VI's voice spoke up once more.

"Neutron Purge Process Initiated. Detonation of Rachni DNA stream in Twenty-two minutes. I repeat, Neutron Purge Process Initiated. Detonation of Rachni DNA stream in Twenty-two minutes." The VI finished, her voice shutting off as Benezia looked at Ventralis in fury.

The man simply smiled smugly as Benezia gathered immense biotic energy in her fist before slamming it into Ventralis' face, the force breaking his nose while also snapping his neck in the process, killing him. Releasing her biotic hold on him, she stands up and looks ahead to see scared civilians and ERCS guards who were hesitating in firing.

"What should we do about them ma'am?" Herau asked, clearly talking about the Helix and security executives. Benezia turned to answer when the sounds of screeching could be heard. _Yes, Saren's weapons are on the prowl. _Smiling, Benezia looked at the civilians and then at Herau. With that, she simply shoved past the civilians and her squad followed, lead by Herau. Once inside the main compound and still moving, Benezia answers.

"Allow the rachni to deal with them. I'm sure they'll be here soon enough."

**"So Noveria is really the place where Shepard cracked?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Certainly was. Looked like the devil himself had possessed him. It was where I started to realize the feelings he had for our quarian engineer."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"So what happened at Peak 15? Did Shepard run into Cerberus and Benezia in the end?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Yes, but it didn't end the way we wanted it to. No, it ended in the saddest way possible. Someone wouldn't be walking out of that facility alive."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**Commando - A soldier or operative of an elite infantry or special operations forces often specializing in amphibious/orbital landings, parashuting or abseiling. Originally, 'commando' was a type of combat unit (eg. Squad, Platoon, Company etc) as opposed to an individual in that unit. In other languages, especially to turians, commando means 'command' and often refers to COs.**

**CO - Commanding Officer.**

**Shock Trooper - AKA 'Assault Troopers' are elite infantry that rely on brute force tactics and heavy weaponry to deal with hostiles. They usually wear heavy armor and wield explosive weapons to deal with vehicle-bound units and have been known to 'love explosions.' Essentially, to a shock trooper, a simply explosion solves everything on the battlefield.**

**Machinist - A person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining.**

**Squad - A Military Combat Unit usually containing 12-15 men depending on race. In the Alliance, Asari Republics and Turian Hierarchy, it is 12 men, making it made up of four fireteams.**

**STG - Special Tasks Group. The salarian intelligence agency and military infiltration and black operations division. Specializes in what salarians do best; stealth, espionage and infiltration. The STG mostly forms the backbone of the salarian military.**

**Galisus - Reference to the Battle of Galisus, a salarian colony that was attacked by the krogan Aralakh 3rd Fleet during the Krogan Rebellions. It is a tribute to the soldiers of the STG that sacrificed their lives to help defend the colony against the krogan onslaught, buying the colony time until the turian seventh fleet arrived and pushed the krogans back.**

**Krogan - A race of reptillian sentient beings that originated from their homeworld of Tuchanka. Krogan history isn't a pretty one, as it mostly involved around their brutish nature and love of war and conflict. Krogan physicality and anatomy basically screams of a natural warrior, having ten times the strength of any sentient species known aside from the yahg and being one of two races to be able to regenerate damaged tissue, the other being the Vorcha. The krogan were uplifted by the salarians to be used as cannon fodder and shock troops to defeat the rachni. The plan worked, but the krogan eventually rebelled due to territorial rights and after the conclusion of the krogan rebellions, the turians and salarians unleashed the genophage virus, dampening the krogan population and putting them in solitary quarantine on Tuchanka, which was now a wasteland due to a nuclear war that had occured years before the salarians uplifted them. The krogan were demilitarized and their home cluster dubbed the 'Krogan DMZ.' The krogan have been extinct as a cultural society ever since. They are one of three races that have been dubbed as a 'inferior of primitive race', the other two being the quarians and vorcha.**

**DMZ - DeMilitarized Zone.**

**Rachni - A race of insectoid sentient beings that originated from their homeworld of Saen. Rachni history is mostly vague as they find it hard to communicate with us but first contact with their race was anything but friendly. The salarians stumbled upon rachni space when they activated a mass relay, the Mu Relay, leading into Rachni space. Upon discovering this new species, the asari send envoys to negoitate, but they were slaughtered by the rachni were had dubbed them as 'trespassers on their territory.' War was declared, sparking in what history calls the Rachni Wars. Being outmatched by their enemies, the salarians were forced to uplift the krogan and use them to fight off the rachni. The krogan were brutally effective and it wasn't long before the rachni were all but wiped out, declared an extinct race by the end of the war. **

**APC - Armoured Personnel Carrier. Ground-based troop transport.**

**Regiment - A Military Combat Unit usually containing 3,000-5,000 men depending on race. In the Alliance and Asari Republics, it is 3,000 men, while in the turian hierarchy, it is 5,000. For the salarian union, it is 1,000 men, making it made up of two battalions.**


	22. Chapter 17 Frozen Extinction Pt3

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:**

**FROZEN EXTINCTION PART THREE**

_July 2, 2183_

_2340 hours. _

_Reactor Core, Peak 15 Facility, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Peak 15. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

As soon as Marcus heard the once more ever present sound of the staccato beat of an assault rifle, he knew that Kaidan had engaged more of the creatures. With non-hesitant speed, he sprinted faster, followed by the rest of his team who made sure to keep up with him as best as they could.

Upon deeper examination of the abandoned facility, they had only found horror at every corner. Destroyed offices, blood soaked walls and dead, multilated bodies everywhere. It was the house of horrors. The place's thermal heating had also failed along with having multiple breaches, as some areas were covered in snow and others were just freezing cold.

Once deeper inside however, they found the source of the carnage and found it was the exact same creatures they had encountered on the Fedele except this time there was much more of them. This caused Marcus' blood to boil when he realized the people on the Cerberus shuttle must have been involved in this. He would find them and then end this threat once and for all.

He finally reached the end of the corridor and turned left to see Kaidan standing in the doorway of what looked like a server room. Consoles were lined up along the walls while two doors flanked them, one leading to the Tram Station and the other to the facility's main reactor. The doorway directly ahead was jammed open and lead to the main VI core, Mira.

What Kaidan was shooting at was what was coming from the main VI core.

A seemlessly neverending horde of the miniture spider creatures ran towards them, the still everpresent green glow present on their bodies. Kaidan continued to fire into the horde, killing them one by one, but killing one just had two more replace it. Signalling his team, Marcus joins in shooting them and is quickly followed by the rest of the team.

After what seems like an eternity, the insects finally went into retreat, leaving what seemed to be a hundred dead bugs, the room's floor soaked with green blood. Marcus, moving forward while making sure nothing was wrong, motioned for his team to scour the area, having Tali follow him so he could see what was going on.

Before he could step into the VI core, Wrex's voice called out.

"Shepard, we've got a missing door." The krogan bellowed and Marcus immediately ran over, followed closely by Tali. When he reached the door he found it had been completely ripped to shreds, the tell-tale remnants of explosives being used could be smelt in the air. Yes, Benezia had forced her way through the containment lockdown, that explained the jammed garage door and this.

"That leads to the Tram Station. If Benezia has headed that way, then we'll follow her. Raptor, take point, Scarab, take the rear. Everyone else, form up on me." Marcus waited for Garrus to move up ahead and Wrex to secure the rear before moving forward, the rest of the squad moving in a protective fashion, all protecting each other's flanks.

After tedious corridor traversing, they finally arrived at the Tram Station, which was, surprise surprise, all but abandoned. Only the annoying sound of the VI repeating evacuation protocols could be heard. Moving forward, he stepped onto the waiting platform only to hear a loud screeching sound that he remembered all too well.

Spinning to face the tram station walls, he saw four of the larger bugs, their pincers glistening in the light and their screeching echoing through the tram tunnels. Without hesitation, he brought his diamond back to bear and opened fire, bullets streaming through the air as his team followed suit.

The creatures charged them but didn't make it far as they were gunned down by the onslaught of gunfire, their screeching halting upon their deaths. However, another screech, somehow sounding more mature, rung through the tunnel and this time an even BIGGER bug arrived.

This was one was slightly bigger than the ones he dubbed soldiers, the ones they had just killed but instead of crimson red bug chitin for skin, it had lines all over its body that glowed brilliant blue and it was a kind of blue he recognized all too well. _Biotics. These bloody bugs have biotics!_

Signalling Kaidan and Liara to raise a biotic barrier, he also pulses with biotics as he charges at the biotic insect. The bug launches a cascade of warp fields at the team, but Kaidan and Liara manage to raise a barrier strong enough to ward them off just as Marcus barrels into the creature, toppling it.

Marcus sends a biotic fist hurling into the bug's face, but it does little damage as it simply uses its own biotics to pick him up and hurl him across the platform and into the ground like a rag doll. Using its powerful legs, the bug closes on him fast but before it can kill him, Marcus knocks its legs out from under it and shoves his assault rifle into its face, pulling the trigger and watching as the biotic creature's head exploded.

With the bug dead, he got up and signalled his team to continue on ahead while he got his bearings. The tram was out of commission because the insects had obviously done something to it so they were going to have to traverse the tunnels on foot. Once he had gotten his bearings, he shook his heads and joined his team, taking point as they turned on their flashlights and traversed the dark, abandoned tunnels.

The tunnel traversing felt like it took hours, the tunnel seemingly going on forever. There wasn't much in the way of conversation either.

"Why is it we keep running into these coincidences? First Cerberus turns up and the next thing we know we're also fighting the exact same mutated bugs that we ALSO encountered on the Fedele. Why? What is going on here?" Ashley asked.

"Maybe Cerberus held stock in Binary Helix and decided to perform experiments on bug tissue." Kaidan responded.

"Why the hell would pro-human terrorists want mutated bugs for?" Ashley asked.

"Maybe they wanted an army," Liara stated, "Seems logical to me. Cerberus wants human domination. What better way to conquer the aliens then to use mutated bugs as cannon fodder while Cerberus bombards our worlds."

"They're using spiders," Tali added, "That's enough incentive for me."

"They're not even arachnids though," Ashley asked in a surprisingly friendly tone, "How could you call them spiders?"

"Because they're small and they scuttle!" Tali responded and pretended to act out seeing a spider and leaping away from it causing Liara to giggle.

"Tali, you're precious..." Liara responded.

Tali tossed the asari a glance and smiled beneath her mask, "Be quiet bosh'tet. They're spiders and I don't like them!"

"They're not spiders! Wrex, tell Tali these things are not spiders!" Ashley asked the hulking war machine. First she's more friendly to Tali than normal and now she's looking to a krogan for help. Was she knocked over the head or something? Marcus simply smiled as he continued to listen to the conversation going on behind him. Okay, little conversation had turned into lots of conversation.

The krogan gave a huff, "They're small and insignificant. I don't know what spiders are, but I hate them already. Weak and cowardly." Wrex responded with too much ego.

"I guess we'll leave to calling them spiders then," Ashley finally sighed, "But I'm telling you they're not of the arachnid family!"

The conversation continued to go back and forth until they finally reached Rift Station, the other side of the tunnel and found that they were in another section of Peak 15. The VI's annoying voice was still announcing evacuation procedures and he just couldn't stop himself from shooting the annunciator in irritation.

Once they had found a way back onto the main platform, they had walked across the room, almost identical to the other tram station and went down the corridor on the left side of the room. They found themselves in a room that was deprived of any life except for the two elevator doors on the left, one leading to the upper levels and the other to a place called the hot labs.

Another screech brought them back to reality and they spun around to repel another attack by rachni soldiers as five more attacked them and were just so easily gunned down. One had gotten its pincer wedged in Garrus' armor, but after ripping it out, the team had entered the elevator taking them to the upper levels, hoping to find Benezia up there.

Once again, conversation was to be made, but by two completely unexpected people.

"So Tali, tell us about the flotilla." Garrus asked Tali, who just pretended not to notice the turian.

"No." Tali responded deadpan.

"Okay, how about your immune system?" Garrus asked, trying to poke around.

"I have a shotgun." Tali responded.

"Yes but uh...is it calibrated?" Garrus asked taking everyone by surprise.

"Um...well, no..." Tali tried to finish, but Garrus cut in almost immediately.

"That's what I thought." Garrus responded and everyone went silent as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Marcus would have laughed at the scene that had just happened, but what he saw took him off of it.

Laying before them was just a stack of dead ERCS guards, all covered in bullet wounds and what looked like trace amounts of biotics. Benezia and her commandos had been here. Looking at the biotic wounds he could tell they were at least a couple days old, which meant they were far behind in catching up on them.

"Benezia and her commandos have been here. Come on, we shouldn't dawdle around. We have to find out what the hell is going on here." Marcus ordered, moving forward and making sure his squad was not far behind him. _Benezia and her asari commandos go to check on a facility run by Binary Helix that is overrun with the same insectoid creatures we encountered on the Fedele and Cerberus just happens to get involved? Way beyond coincidence._

Marcus and the team continued to move along the empty corridor as they fast approach the door at the end. Once at it, he gets Tali to hack into it as he checks his omni-tool. Seeing a single message from his mother he ignores it for the time being and returns to his current work and notices just in time that the door is open and his squad is already inside.

Running inside himself he is met by a strange sight.

People. Civilians. They covered the room, all looking defeated and scared. Many ERCS guards patrolled the room, all looking equally as scared and desperate as the civilian scientists around them. Upon seeing them enter, the ERCS raised their weapons, but immediately lowered them upon seeing that they were human.

"Thank god, some answers. Have you heard from Captain Ventralis and his men? We've attempted contacting him but we can't send men over there. Too risky with the rachni running all over the place. He was on the perimeter." One of the turian soldiers asked, holstering his weapon.

"Unfortunately yes, he's dead. We found they were killed by a known fugitive from justice named-" Marcus didn't finish as Wrex stepped forward with wide eyes, surprised at what the turian had said before.

"Did you just say 'rachni?'" Wrex said in what sounded like the most curious tone he had heard from the krogan.

"Yes, those bugs we're fighting are the rachni. Hard to believe, I know." The turian responded.

"But that's impossible! The rachni were wiped out two thousand years ago!" Liara responded but before the turian could respond, Marcus spoke up.

"Someone care to fill me in on what these 'rachni' are?" Marcus asked.

"The reason my people were uplifted by the salarians." Wrex muttered under his breath and turned away, but Liara managed to continue for him, Wrex apparently deciding to harass the hanar and his elcor companion in the corner of the room.

"The rachni were an insectoid race discovered by the salarians two thousand years ago. The rachni butchered the asari envoys and total war broke out between the galaxy and the rachni," Liara began her explanation, "Remember that this was before the existence of the Terminus Systems, so the entire galaxy was Council space. We quickly discovered we couldn't defeat the rachni, so the salarians uplifted the krogan, jumpstarting their evolution by sixty years. With the krogan, we wiped out the rachni and we thought them extinct. But apparently we were wrong."

"No, you were right." Came the familiar synthetic voice of a volus, and the breather sound that reminded him of Darth Vader only confirmed this as the midget form of the alien came into view.

"My name is Han Olar and I'm one of the head scientists involved in the rachni project in Binary Helix." The volus announced and Marcus immediately crouched next to him.

"What happened here, Han?" he asked.

"A few months ago, one of our merchant couriers came across a derelict rachni vessel that had been without power for sometime," Olar began, "So they boarded it to find a rachni queen, and it was still alive! So they took it back here and got the queen to lay eggs. Under orders from Saren Arterius, we took the eggs away, hatched them seperately from the queen's hive mind. He wanted us to raise an army for him so we did that. We tamed them, or so we thought."

"You tried to breed an army of bugs that tried to kill us all two thousand years ago? You should have had the ship destroyed and the queen killed!" Wrex boomed as he returned and glared down on the volus who was most likely shitting himself.

"We thought we could tame them! But we were wrong! A couple of weeks ago they just went crazy and out of control! They broke out of the hot labs and started killing everyone and we tried to send a distress call out. Unluckily for us, we just had to have a snowstorm sweep in. We tried to reach the garage to send a vehicle out, but the rachni butchered anyone trying to escape. Everyone here are the only survivors. If we could activate the neutron purge we'd be fine, but apparently someone has already done that."

"Wait, neutron purge? What does this purge do?" Marcus asked but Liara answered for Olar.

"Judging by the name it must target the rachni's specific neutrons and...vaporizes them. Think about someone being thought out of existence and you basically have what the neutron purge does. But Olar, you said someone has already done that?" Liara finished asking and turned to Olar with a raised brow.

"Yes, two days ago. This asari matriarch and her commandos just pop up after the VI declares the purge was activated. She kept mumbling on about how 'Shepard is already here' and just disappeared. She was headed towards the quarantine sector, where we hold the queen. But yeah, all the rachni are dead now. Two days dead."

Marcus glances at his team and gives them a raised brow in which they mostly respond with equally confused looks and shrugs before Marcus turns back to the volus.

"But Olar, we just fought through a horde of rachni to get here. How can they all be dead?" Marcus asked.

"Well, the success rate of the neutron purge wasn't exactly high, it was in prototype stages and had never been tested before. It is possible that a small amount of rachni survived or that none of them were effected. The after effects are completely unpredictable at best." Olar declared.

Marcus simply thanked Olar for his help and glanced at the quarantine lab entrance before turning back to his squad. Sighing, he motions for them to huddle around him.

"Okay, if the neutron purge was fully successful then we'll know. I want you all prepared to fight rachni and asari commandos. Me and Liara will deal with Benezia," Marcus explained, exchanging a worried glance at Liara that she responded with a nod, "Keep this clean and hopefully we can all finish this quickly."

With acknowledgement from his squad, Marcus equips his assault rifle and heads directly for the elevator to the quarantine sector.

_Time to finish this._

* * *

_July 2, 2183_

_2416 hours. _

_Quarantine Sector Main Lab, Peak 15 Facility, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Peak 15. _

_Sergeant Major Jacob Taylor, Matriarch Benezia M'Soni, Major Herau I'Loak_

"Benezia, put the weapon down now! I'm not going to warn you again!" Jacob barked again as he kept the asari matriarch in his shotgun sights. The rest of his squad had the asari commandos all in their sights, just awaiting their commander's order to fire. Benezia fixed Jacob a glare that would freeze ice, but he wasn't backing down. When the Illusive Man wanted something, he got it.

"Have you ever encountered an asari commando unit before? Few humans have," Benezia with obvious smugness, glancing at her highly-trained killers before looking back at the cerberus commandos that faced her, along with the shotgun pointed at her face. Both sides appeared to be at a stalemate, both of them either to kill each other with the pull of a trigger.

"Few asari have ever encountered a human commando unit either." Jacob responded, gribbing the shotgun a little tighter as he kept his eyes on Benezia. Asari were known to be devious; let them out of your sight for one second and they could drop you in a heartbeat.

"Mostly because they're not very impressive. Asari are natural biotics, humans aren't. It gives us an edge." Benezia responded while pacing back and forth. Occassionally, Jacob would give a glance at the huge form of the rachni queen in the glass tank next to them. The queen was definitely massive, being the size of a double decker bus and being colored in much the same way as the biotic rachni he had encountered in the hot labs.

He had also heard Benezia state that the queen was a biotic as well and he was only willing to believe her out of the necessity of worrying about everything around him. However, he knew he was perfectly safe. The queen's tank was connected to four injector tubes that could flood the tank with acid and kill the queen if it tried to escape. Only manual release could let it escape, which he was positive Benezia was trying to do.

"Why are you here, Benezia? Why is the rachni queen's escape so important to you?" Jacob asked, still making sure to keep Benezia in his shotgun sights.

"I could ask you the same thing, Cerberus. Human terrorists really don't have anything of value here to steal, so why come? And why do you think I want to free the queen? Ha! That would be just foolish!" Benezia declared, her smug smile coming up on her asari features.

"We're here to assist Shepard in defeating Saren and the geth," Jacob declared but stopped when he remembered what Benezia had said, "Wait, then why are you here?"

"The queen was never meant to escape. I instructed the scientists to have the soldiers seperated from the queen so they could grow to accept our commands only, not the queen's. However, that backfired. The soldiers went crazy and broke containment, so I was sent here to deal with the problem and then take the information I need from the queen's mind." Benezia explained.

"Information? What information?" Jacob interrogated.

"The location of the Conduit." Benezia said and her smile grew even wider. Jacob simply raised a brow. _The Conduit? The Illusive Man mentioned that in the debrief but he didn't say what it was._

"What the hell is the Conduit?" Jacob interrogated again but when he noticed Benezia's smile loosen up at the question, he knew something was wrong.

**ENOUGH HAS BEEN TOLD. THIS EXCHANGE OF EXPOSITION IS A WASTE OF VALUABLE TIME. **

The cerberus commandos looked around them in terror at the booming voice, but Jacob's look of fright was focused solely on Benezia, where the synthetic monotone voice resounded from.

"What...are you!?" Jacob shouted and the commandos looked back at Benezia.

**I AM BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION. YOUR UNDERSTANDING IS NOT NESSACARY. YOU WILL DIE BEFORE YOU WITNESS THE ASCENSION.**

Too transfixed with Benezia's changed voice, Jacob did not see her form a warp field. By the time he snapped into action, he was flying across the room and had slammed into a wall, the shotgun he held being ripped from his grip and torn away as he slid to the ground and slowly lost consciousness. The last thing he heard was gunfire as his commando team retaliated.

Hearing gunfire, Marcus immediately hit the door panel and barged in, watching from behind as Benezia and her asari commando unit finished slaughtering the ill-equipped cerberus soldiers. Finished fighting them, Benezia turned back at the huge creature he gathered must be the rachni queen and then looked back at him.

"You do not know the privledge of being a mother," Benezia stated, seemingly talking to herself but upon her look towards him, he knew she was addressing him, "There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it towards happiness or despair." Benezia finished and turned towards Marcus wants more and approached him, stopping at the top of the stairway.

"Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies," Benezia continued, "I won't be moved by sympathy, no matter who you bring with you." Benezia finished, looking directly at Liara with a look of pure venom.

"Mother..." Liara muttered, looking directly at the woman that wanted nothing more than to kill her own daughter. What had this Sovereign done to her? Was she too far gone?

"I didn't bring Liara for sympathy, she came to save you from Saren." Marcus then nodded towards Liara, who immediately jumped forward on her chance, but Benezia interrupted before she could speak.

"Indeed. I wonder, what have you told him about me, Liara?" Benezia asked the asari researcher this time, the look of rage still in her eyes.

"What do you want me to say, mother? That you're insane and evil? Should I explain your strengths and weaknesses? Goddess, should I explain how to kill you!? What could I possibly say about you!?" Liara spat and for a second it looked like regret had appeared in Benezia's eyes, but they had been shaken away just as fast as they appeared.

"It appears you have learnt nothing. All those years and you still have not heeded my teachings, still the foolish girl who went out to dig up ruins." Benezia retorted.

"You never taught me that I should team up with rogue spectres looking to wipe us out! Think mother! Sovereign is controlling you!" Liara pleaded desperately, but it wasn't working, Benezia wasn't going to give in easily.

"You've betrayed your own kind to side with a human!" Benezia spat.

"No! YOU betrayed our people! You've joined up with the enemy, why can't you see that!? MOTHER!" Liara looked like she was on the verge of crying, but she wasn't going to give up just yet. Just when Benezia looked as if she'd give another venomous retort, her features lightened and her eyes showed a split second of kindness.

"Little wing, there is nothing I c-" Benezia was immediately cut off once more as she screamed in pain and cradled her head, pain shooting through it. When she looked back up, she was the same murderous asari she had been before.

"You're insolence will cost you dearly! This ends now!" Without warning, Benezia pulsed with blue light as she flung Liara into a wall.

"Liara!" Marcus shouted as he drew his weapon to fire, but Benezia had already noticed them and sent a massive field of blue light towards them, knocking his entire team onto the ground and causing Marcus to go flying into the wall behind him. Hitting the ground, he looked up to see Benezia returning to the queen's tank while ordering her commandos to kill him and his team.

"You heard the matriarch! Kill them!" Herau demanded, raising her own shotgun and moving in to defend her commander. The commandos moved in to finish them off but they hadn't been counting on Wrex. With renewed vigor, Wrex pulsed with biotic energy as he picked up one commando and slammed her back into the ground, creating a bone-shattering crack.

With one commando dead, Wrex moved on to the others, but they learned quickly. He charged one of them, but she gracefully dodged out of the way as she picked up Wrex in a biotic field and flung him away. Before she could finish off the krogan with a flurry of assault rifle fire, a familiar orange combat drone appeared and began harassing her with electric shocks.

Tali was up and behind one of the crates, using her omni-tool to control Chiktika directly. Smiling, he noticed Liara already getting and she moved up to silently attack one of the commandos. Too focused on Marcus who was getting up, the commando didn't notice Liara until it was too late, the researcher's pistol butt banging against the back of her head and knocking her out.

Now fully up, Marcus managed to raise a biotic barrier just in time to block an asari's biotic strike, the soldier's glowing fist slamming into the barrier and pulling back after noticing her attack failed. She motioned to raise her rifle, but Marcus was already on top of her, knife out. The asari however, wasn't dying yet. His swipe at her throat was nimbly dodged and he tried to counter by slamming into her head, but she blocked that as well.

The asari gracefully countered his blows block for block while also getting her own attacks in, which Marcus blocked most of. Finally having enough, Marcus pushed her back suddenly and was about to fire a shotgun slug into her torso when she kicked him in the quads. He gritted his teeth to shut out the yell of pain and simply pulled the trigger, the slug penetrating her chest and ripping the asari apart, leaving her a dead heap on the ground.

Looking back around he watched as another commando charged at him, but he was saved by Garrus as a sniper round entered her skull and caused it to explode in a sea of red blood, clouding his helmet's vision as it coated it. Once wiped off, he reentered the fray. One cracked rib and a bullet wound to the hand later, the entire commando squad had been defeated.

Ignoring the pain in his ribcage, Marcus advanced up the stairs, squad just behind him. Within no time, he was facing Benezia's back as she stood at the console of the tank and the asari major, Herau I'Loak, as she raised her shotgun to face Marcus.

"Matriarch, incoming!" Herau shouted in warning and pointed her rifle directly at Ashley, but before she could pull the trigger, a pistol shot fired and entered through Herau's skull, causing her shotgun to clatter uselessly to the ground and her body to fall, face first, onto the ground dead.

"A pity, Shiala and Herau were my best commandos. A pity you had to intervene Shepard." Benezia declared, turning around to face them.

When Marcus had turned to see who fired the shot, he saw Tali, pistol still raised and smoking as she then holstered it. Ashley's shocked look was comical but when he heard the soldier thank the quarian, that made his day. What had happened to the racist to make her like Tali so much? Maybe the fact that Tali just saved her life?

Ignoring the stinging pain in his testicles, he continued to raise his rifle until it pointed dead center on Benezia's face.

"This isn't over," Benezia declared, "Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear." Benezia finished, sounding actually convinced that Saren was her prophet or something. Delusion went a long way apparently. However, he decided he would let Liara deal with this. This was her mother, not his.

"But mother, look at the rachni. They didn't cooperate with Saren so why should you?" Liara pleaded, moving forward until she was next to the asari. He wasn't so sure about that choice, but he knew his team were on standby to kill Benezia if nessacary. Benezia looked at Liara with a look of desperation in her eyes and sadness. She then ripped them away and looked at the console in anger.

"I will not betray him! You will-You-I-" Benezia tried to form a coherent sentence, but Liara dived in first.

"Fight it, mother! Sovereign doesn't control you and neither does Saren! You can fight his influence! Don't give in! Please..." Liara desperately begged and silence befell the room as Benezia contemplated her words. Before long, she looked up at Liara with recognition in her eyes.

"You must listen," Benezia began, her voice more gentle and kind than the one that called for his death not too long ago. Had Liara's pleas broken through? "Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions, but only for so long. The indoctrination is so strong, it's unbelievably powerful!"

"Indoctrination?" Marcus asked.

"It is the process that Sovereign uses to take control of his adjutants, how it took control of Saren and how it took control of me and my servants." Benezia explained and Marcus realized what indoctrination was. So that was what the process was called.

"So your saying that you could turn on us again?" Liara asked worriedly.

"I'm afraid so, little wing, which is why you must stay away from me," Benezia declared, making a three meter distance between herself and her daughter, "People are not themselves around Saren. You come to idiolize him. Worship him. You would do anything for him." Benezia stated, making the sensation sound euphoric and horrible at the same time.

"As you already know, the key is his flagship, Sovereign. It's a dreadnought of incredible size and unimaginable power." Benezia explained. Liara moved in almost immediately.

"We know Sovereign is not of geth design but it is a reaper vessel. Do you know where the rest of the reapers are hiding?" Liara asked.

"I cannot say for I do not have the knowledge, but Saren is convinced that the Conduit will help bring them back to destroy our galaxy once more," Benezia answered, "But Sovereign's indoctrination is powerful. The more you sta onboard, the more Saren's will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you."

"It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to resist. Instead, I became a willing tool, eager to serve." Benezia continued, seeming to relive the story like it had happened just a few seconds ago, "He sent me here to find the location of the Mu Relay. Its position was lost thousands of years ago."

"How does something like a mass relay go missing?" Marcus asked, confused at how something so big could just disappear.

"Four thousand years ago, a star nearby went supernova. The shockwave propelled the mass relay out of its system, but did not damage it," Benezia explained, "Its precise vector and speed are impossible to determine. As millenia passed, the nebula created by the supernova enveloped the relay."

"It is difficult to find any cold object in interstellar space. Particulary something swathed in hot dust and radiation." Benezia stated.

"Can we assume that you've found the coordinates?" Liara asked.

"Two thousand years ago, the rachni inhabitated that region of our galaxy. They discovered the relay," Benezia explained further, "The rachni can share memories across generations. Queens inherit the knowledge of their mothers. I took the location of the relay from the queen's mind," Benezia explained and this time she looked at the ground with a tone of regret, "I was not gentle."

Marcus kept throwing glances at the rachni queen that was caged up but mostly ignored it. He would deal with it after saving Benezia.

"You can still make it right. Give us the information. Please mother, we can still save you! You can help us on our mission to stop Saren! You can make this all right!" Liara begged once more and she noticed Benezia reaching into a pocket on her uniform, pulling out an OSD.

She immediately handed it to Liara before stepping back three meters once again, "I transcribed the data to that OSD. Use it well. Please make Saren pay for what he has done." Benezia stated and Marcus noticed the sadness in that tone. Benezia knew she was too far gone to be saved. He nodded in understanding at Benezia's acknowledgement of her fate.

"Knowing the relay's coordinates isn't enough. Do you know what Saren planned on doing after that?" Ashley interrogated.

"Saren wouldn't tell me his destination. But you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to him before you arrived." Benezia declared and Marcus cursed under his breath. _Damn it, always one step ahead of us. _Before Marcus could ponder more on that topic, Benezia screamed in pain and his head snap towards her.

She was cradling her head in pain again. "You have to stop-me. I can't-His teeth are at my ear. Fingers on my spine," Benezia pleaded, "You should - uh, you should -" Liara felt tears well in her eyes as she backed off more and witnessed Benezia looking up again, her eyes once more full of hate.

"...Die!" Benezia finished with pure venom as she launched a biotic bombardment towards them, but Marcus countered immediately with a biotic barrier. Benezia was about to charge towards them but she stopped in her tracks as a pistol round entered straight through her back, her mouth agape.

Marcus dropped his barrier and saw Benezia fall onto her knees as he saw Liara approach, pistol in hand and basically a wreck. She was crying hysterically and the pistol shook in her grip as she held it the back of Benezia's head. Like before, Benezia managed to break Sovereign's control once more.

"I cannot go on. You will have to stop him Shepard." Benezia declared.

Liara's response was barely coherent, "Mother...I-I-can't do this. I won't-"

"No. He is still in my mind. I am not entirely myself and never will be again."

"But mother, please! We can still-"

"I'm sorry, little wing, but you know it has to be done. Make it quick."

Liara continued to weep as Marcus looked at her regretfully. He couldn't imagine what world of pain the young asari was going through. Having to kill your own mother to save her...that's a decision he hoped he would never have to make.

"I love you, mum. I always have, no matter how much I used to say I hated you I always loved you." Liara stated, the pistol still shaking in her hands as she used her second hand to steady it.

"I know, Liara. I know I used to chastise you alot but I've always loved you. Everything I did was for our family. You should have gotten to meet your father. I'm so sorry that I didn't become the parent you wanted me to be. I...love you..." Benezia stated but it was clear Sovereign was attempting to take control of her again.

"I will see you at the dawn..." Liara stated as she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, the pistol discharging as a bullet entered the back of Benezia's skull, killing her instantly. The matriarch's body crumbled to the ground, dead.

Liara then dropped the pistol and entered a crying fit, into which, once again surprisingly, Ashley moves in and lets Liara cry on her shoulder. Marcus looks at Benezia's body and orders Kaidan to go back and get a body bag. Benezia deserved a proper funeral.

Before they could leave however, he had one more loose end to clean up. Looking up, he looked at the rachni queen and steadily approached its tank. Before he could get very far however, Herau's body began to stir and he immediately pulled out his raikou pistol to aim at it. Looking at the dead asari in horror, he saw her stand up and looked directly at him with unfocused eyes. Looking back at the tank he noticed the queen looking between him and Herau and finally realized what was happening.

The queen had reanimated the body.

The rest of his team, aside from Ashley and Liara, the latter still crying in the former's shoulder who simply cradled her and whispered words of apology at her racist actions, raised their weapons but Marcus motioned them to stand down, which they all did except Wrex. After a death glare, the krogan snorted and lowered his weapon.

Sure that his team wouldn't attack, he turned back to Herau's reanimated corpse and when it began to speak, he heard it reverbrate around the room. Its voice sounded like a mix of synthetic and organic but also sounded authoritarian. The voice also seemed to echo in whispers in his mind, almost eerily. The queen was speaking through Herau.

"This one. Serves as...our voice. We cannot sing. Not in these low...spaces. Your musics are...colorless." The queen began and his team just gave the queen a look of confusion. _Cannot sing? Low spaces? Musics? Colorless? _

"Musics? What?" Marcus asked, scratching the back of his neck in confusion.

"Your way of...communicating is...strange. Flat. It does not color the air. When we speak, one moves all," The queen continued, "WE are the mother...We thing for those left...behind. The children you thought...silenced."

"We are rachni." The queen finished and Marcus walked forward, shaking his head as he leaned against the glass.

"How are you speaking through her?" Marcus decided to start with questions, see whether this queen was friendly or not. Historically, he already knew, but humanity knew nothing about the rachni so now was his chance to learn more.

"Our kind sing through touchings of thought. We pluck the strings, and the other...understands. She is weak to urging," The queen explained, "She has colors we have no names for. But she is ending. Her music is bittersweet. It is beautiful." The queen stated and Marcus returned to his spot in the center of the platform, just looking at the huge form of the rachni queen.

"The children we birthed were stolen from us before they could learn to sing. They are lost to silence," The queen declared, "But you have ended their suffering with the...neutron...purge. They could not be saved. They would only have caused harm as they were. Gone, we can restart anew and breed a new race of children to follow us once more."

"So it looks like when they seperate the soldiers from the queen they must have cut the telepathic link," Liara explained, clearly having overcome her mother's death for the time being, "Without the link, the soldiers would have become confused and afraid and would attack anything in sight. Helix made a mistake by trying to tame them."

The queen's head seemed to bob in a nod as it continued, "We stand before you. What will you sing? Will you release us? Are we to fade away once more?" The queen asked and Marcus found himself pondering the question. _Could I kill her like this? Wouldn't I be responsible for the genocide of an entire species? Could I really let myself do that?_

"The rachni were a threat to the galaxy. Those tanks are filled with acid," Garrus stated, pointing at the injectors, "If she gets out of hand, they dissolve her."

"But we made a mistake! We let the krogan get too far," Tali stated, moving up next to Marcus, "This is our chance to atone for what we've done. She has done nothing wrong. Killing her and her species would be genocide! Please Shepard, you can't do it!"

"We let her escape and she'll just start over," Wrex added in, "Kill her now and we can end this once and for all. No more rachni for Saren to play with."

"But you're talking about killing an entire species! Imagine going to Tuchanka and just nuking it! It'd be exactly like that! It's genocide!" Liara shouted.

"Enough!" Marcus boomed and everyone fell silent as he looked back towards the rachni queen and pondered his decision. _Kill her, I wipe out an entire species. Release her, I could be responsible for resparking an entire galactic war. Which is it? Genocide or galactic conflict? Am I willing to take the risk of the latter? Is it not preferable to take the chance of a war happening than to kill off this queen and definitely wipe out an entire species?_

In that instant, he had made his decision.

"I won't destroy your entire race. You'll go free." Marcus declared and his decision was met by immediate objection.

"Are you insane! These things are my people's mortal enemy!" Wrex bellowed, looking at Marcus with a look of pure rage.

"I have to agree with Wrex, is this really what you think is the right choice, Shepard?" Garrus asked.

"I made a command decision and you either respect it or you can leave. This isn't a fucking democracy." Marcus retorted and moved up to the main controls, typing into the terminal. Within a few seconds he had released the clamps and opened the door. Herau's body clumped to the floor as the queen let control of her go and she looked at him one last time.

_Thank you. We will remember your forgiveness for as long as we sing. _

The queen then walked out of the tank and disappeared from view, Marcus smiling as he turned to leave. Noticing that Kaidan had returned with the body bag he motioned for his team to head on out. He would return to Port Hanshan, report the trouble at Peak 15 and then leave.

What a hell of a day.

* * *

_July 2, 2183_

_0122 hours. _

_Quarantine Sector Main Lab, Peak 15 Facility, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War. _

_Sergeant Major Jacob Taylor._

When he awoke, his world was pain. His head throbbed and his back ached. Opening his eyes all he could see was the evidence of carnage all over the place. Looking at the stairwell he saw that his squad was dead but looking further up he saw no sign of the asari commandos or Benezia. Damn it, they must have escaped. Looking up, he saw no sign of the rachni queen either. Yeah, 'not here to let them escape' my ass.

Slowly and steadily, Jacob pushed himself off the ground and stood up, his chest burning with pain. He moved up the stairs and passed the dead bodies of his deceased cerberus comrades and once at the top found himself looking down the opposite flight of stairs at the dead bodies of the asari commandos.

Confused, Jacob tried to find out what had happened but couldn't. Before he could investigate further however, his comm began beeping and he found that he was being communicated by the Illusive Man himself. Gulping, he answered the call.

"Operative Taylor, did you manage to help Shepard with his mission on Noveria? Was Benezia stopped from releasing the rachni queen?" The Illusive Man immediately asked and he heard him take a puff of his cigar before blowing. Waiting for Illusive to finish, Jacob answered.

"The mission was a failure sir. Benezia wasn't here to free the queen but to glean information from her on the location of the Conduit. Her commandos killed my men and knocked me unconscious. I just woke up to find her unit dead and Benezia and the queen missing." Jacob asked, imminently waiting his chastisement.

"Isn't the answer obvious? Shepard arrived, killed the commandos and Benezia and then released the queen. He was too sentimental for his own good apparently but I wasn't aware he was stupid enough to release the rachni queen from containment."

"But why would Benezia's body be missing?" Jacob asked.

"Because Liara, Benezia's daughter, was with him and probably took the body to be given a proper burial. Well, Benezia and her unit are dead so I guess the mission isn't a total failure. Report back to Minuteman Station for reassignment." The Illusive Man ordered before cutting the comm link. Jacob simply nodded as he turned towards the exit and began limping.

_Better get to the shuttle before they find it._

**{Loading...}**

_July 2, 2183_

_0124 hours. _

_Administrator's Office, Port Hanshan, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Noveria Internal Affairs Agent Gianna Parasini._

"So your saying that Binary Helix was responsible for the captation of rachni?" Parasini asked again, completely surprised by the revelations. She was expecting mercenaries and the geth that Matsuo had reported in the garage, but rachni? The species had been officially declared extinct, how could they be back?

"That's exactly what I'm saying. The neutron purge took care of most of them and I killed the queen. All you need to do is send in the clean up teams," Marcus lied, not wanting to reveal that he had released the queen. Parasini could be trusted but he didn't know how she would react to that.

"I'll make sure Administrator Qui'in to let you know if he approves of it or not." Parasini informs him.

"So Qui'in did become administrator afterall? What a surprise." Marcus stated, lying through his teeth. _Not surprising at all actually. As soon as I met him I knew he was administrator material. _

"Yes, the executive board had him approved of almost immediately upon the erasion of Anoleis' records. He's now official administrator of Port Hanshan and I'm staying here to keep him in check. Don't want him ending up as another Anoleis, do we?" Parasini asked with a smile.

"So I guess it's back to errand-girl for you, isn't it?" Marcus stated, looking almost sympathetic for the woman.

"Definitely not. No, the board has made me his ACTUAL secretary. Not the desk jockey job I had before that Anoleis, comically, named secretary. It's not like that mundane job I had before," Parasini finished with a smile, "But I really shouldn't keep you from your job. You've probably got a galaxy to save so I'm going to let you go. It was a pleasure meeting you, Commander. I hope we meet again." Parasini finished by shaking the spectre's hand.

"Likewise." Marcus finished before turning to leave. Once out of the office he headed back to the Normandy where they would be holding Benezia's funeral. Afterwards they would head for Thessia where she would be properly buried before the Normandy linked up with the Orizaba again to participate in the war games. Where they went afterwards was anyone's guess.

Before he could leave however, he found himself confronted by Matsuo.

"Captain Matsuo, pleasure seeing you again." Marcus stated formally.

"Enough with the bullshit pleasantries, I treated you like shit on your arrival here because I thought you were the typical, egotistical council operative. I was wrong though," Matsuo stated, "I guess what I want to say is that I apologize for my behaviour and formally apologize on behalf of the ERCS for the actions taken against you."

"Don't apologize, you were just doing your job. Just, next time you meet someone like Stirling, do a background check next time. Might help if people like me swing by again." Marcus said a wink.

For the first time, Marcus witnessed Matsuo put on a friendly smile and she shook the spectre's hand, "Maybe I should have joined the Alliance when I got the chance. Maybe I still do, only time will tell. Send the geth my regards." Matsuo then preceded to salute the spectre and he returned the salute before she dropped it, nodded and left for her post.

Well, to say this was an uneventful day was a understatement. But now he had a funeral to attend.

This bit had no happy ending.

**{Loading...}**

_July 2, 2183_

_0141 hours. _

_Combat Informaton Center, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for Thessia._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Pressly, Chief Engineer Gregory Adams, Chief Medical Officer Karin Chakwas, Petty Officer Second Class Frederick Deve Johnson._

Marcus sighed as he approached the top of the galaxy map, looking down at the officers assembled around the CIC. All senior personnel members and his team were there, all except Joker who, because of his brittle bone disease, couldn't leave the cockpit and instead watched through one of the CIC's security cameras.

Marcus could see Liara who was still crying, with Ashley and Tali comforting her as best they could. Wrex seemed stoic while Garrus and Kaidan stood there in respect to the fallen matriarch. Chakwas looked at Liara with a look of sympathy while Pressly had simply kept complaining about holding the funeral of an alien on a alliance warship until he was scolded by Doctor Chakwas, shutting up afterwards.

Adams stood at the end of the galaxy map in much the same stance as every other soldier on the ship; parade rest. The ship's marines stood in a honor guard formation around Benezia's body which lay in the middle of the deactivated galaxy map, wrapped in a body bag and placed gently on the ground. The marines stood there like statues.

Before the ceremony, in which Liara had insisted on performing in the asari fashion, Marcus had whispered the Mourner's Kaddish for Benezia. He had even added his own words for her before taking his position at the head of the CIC. He was the commanding officer of the ship and as much as he wanted to stand amongst his fellow comrades, he couldn't. Pressly stood to his left, being the XO of the ship, in parade rest.

Signalling for everyone to quiet down, he begun his part of the ceremony with a lament.

"Today we gather here to mourn the death of the mother of Liara T'Soni, our shipmate, our sister in arms. No matter how different she may be, no matter how inhuman," he said, looking at Pressly before looking back, "she was still a living, breathing, organic being and should be treated as such. As of now, we hold this in lamentation. Amen." Marcus finished before letting Liara carry the rest of the ceremony.

Getting her weeping under control, Liara began, "My mother was a kind and generous woman who only helped people wherever she went. She dispensed her wisdom not with ego or vehemence, but for teaching and learning. She loved me like no other mother would, she treated me like her little gem. Her little...wing."

"When she joined Saren she tried to turn him away from his beliefs, his ideals. She failed and joined him. But when I look back, I realize that she never failed, but kept fighting. She may not have realized it, but deep down she was fighting and that is what kept her going," Liara finished and reached the bit she dreaded most, "Today, I was forced to kill my own mother to stop her from killing us."

"Yellow. Yellow was always her favourite color. She loved yellow. When she died, I think she saw yellow," Liara said, confusing a few people but she shook the thoughts away as she continued with the main part of the ceremony. Leaping into the center of the galaxy map, she takes off the upper portion of the bag, revealing Benezia's head.

Liara placed her hands on Benezia's face and melded with her, Liara's eyes turning pitch black as she spoke.

"Goddess Athame, may you accept this one into the labyrinth of warmth that is your arms. May you accept her as your child and your daughter so that she may sleep peacefully forever in your embrace," Liara continued, "Oh Athame, you have provided wonders for all of us. You have driven all of us to know of your existence. Only now does my mother, Benezia of the tribe of Mamlo'Soni, see this and awaits your embrace. She comes alone, as her bondmate is not yet ready to join her in death."

"Embrace this one so she may feel eternity, ever lasting." Liara finished and she let go, her eyes returning to their normal color as both Liara and Benezia's body's pulsed with biotic blue light. Before them, they watched as the two biotics linked together in some kind of link, their biotics like a piece of string connecting them to one another.

As soon as it had been connected, the biotic string disappeared and the biotics dissipated, the ceremony over. Returning to her usual position, Liara acknowledges the end of the ceremony and storms out, heading down the stairs. Turning to his crew, he speaks.

"Crew dismissed. Shore leave scheduled upon return to the Citadel." Marcus declared as the crew dispersed, Chakwas leading her medical crew to have Benezia's body taken to the medical bay until it can be properly buried on the asari homeworld. Marcus sighed as he left, only to be stopped when he saw Ashley. He needed to talk to her about her sudden change in demeanour.

**"I guess that left Liara with some pretty bad mental scarring." **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Certainly did, even today she still laments her lost mother, but she's moved on with her life. If I was allowed to contact my friends, I could tell you more."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Sorry, but we can't allow that at present time. Security protocol, I'm afraid. Now, tell us about what about afterwards. You mentioned that Shepard had gotten a message from his mother. What was it about?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Don't know, all we know is that after receiving that message, Shepard just turned into a sociopathic demon. He didn't talk to anyone unless it was orders but when we got to where we were going, we knew what was going on."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"What happened?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Shepard happened. Yes, shit was about to hit the fan. His past had finally caught up to him."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

* * *

**Mourner's Kaddish - Jewish Prayer for the dead or dying.**

**Athame - The Prothean Female that is worshipped in asari religion as being the saviour of Thessia when she stopped an asteriod from colliding with the planet.**

**XO - Executive Officer. First officer.**

**CIC - Combat Information Center.**

**Minuteman Station - Classified Cerberus Space Station. Location Unknown.**

**OSD - On-Screen Display. Becomes the future improvisation and replacement for USBs.**

**Hanar - A race of 'jellyfish-like' sentient species that orginated from their homeworld of Kahje. They are not a Council race but are part of the many Citadel races, also having en embassy on the Citadel. The hanar don't really provide much in the way of assets (turians provide military assets, asari technical assets, the salarians scientific assets etc), so they are mostly looked down upon by the galactic community. Most hanar are merchants and traders. They're dextro protein based.**

**Elcor - A race of quadpedal creatures that are heavily built in nature and slow moving that originated from their homeworld of Dekunna. Like the hanar, they are not a council race but a citadel race, sharing an embassy with the volus protectorate. Like hanar again, they don't provide any worthy assets aside from having resource exclusive to their planet. They're levo protein based. They're an odd race as they're faces are unable to display emotion so they are forced to 'verbally state' what they are feeling at the present time. (eg. 'Pleasantly surprised; I do believe you are retarded)**

**Volus - A race of bipedal humanoids that originated from their homeworld of Irune. The volus are not a Council race and share an embassy with the elcor. They are one of the races to desperately want a seat on the council and make it known almost all the time. The volus are known for being 'money-men' and are quite the economical masters. As such they have developed trade relations with the Turian Hierarchy. They are forced to wear envirosuits, much like the quarians, except instead of protecting their immune system, they're protecting themselves from the air as apparently it causes their skin to crack and eventually explode. They're dextro protein based.**

**Republic - A republic is a form of government in which the country is considered a 'public matter,' not the private concern or property of the rulers, and where offices of state are subsequently directly or indirectly elected or appointed rather than inherited. This is called 'Republicanism.'**

**Hierarchy - An organized body of acclesiastical officials in successive ranks or orders. **

**Protectorate - An autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity. In exchange, the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations, which may vary greatly, depending on the real nature of their relationship. This is called a 'protected state' or 'protectorism.'**


	23. Chapter 18 Fires of the Past

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:**

**FIRES OF THE PAST**

_July 3, 2183_

_1616 hours._

_Gatehouse Three, Eastern Perimeter, Geth Fortress, Virmire._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_Captain Waui Kirrahe, Commander Osei Rentola, Master Sergeant Mordin Solus, Specialist Maelon Heplorn, First Sergeant Manos Avot, Lieutenant Ganto Imness._

"Avot, what do you see?" Kirrahe asked as he looked out over the grand landscape of Virmire. The planet itself resembled Sur'Kesh, with its tropical landscape and waterfalls. The climate was mostly humid but for the most part, it rarely rained while they were there. Most of the land was covered in water, but they had managed to find a secluded area to crash the ship.

The lucky thing for them however, is that it was right inside the geth compound; inbetween the last gatehouse and the geth fortress itself. The planetary cannons had almost ripped them apart, if not for last minute maneveurs, they would have been destroyed during atmospheric entry. Now they were on a small crest over looking the geth checkpoint building, the rest of the regiment setting up camp and a transmitter.

Manos looked away from the scope of his rifle and turned to Kirrahe.

"I don't know what those geth blast doors are made of, but nothing we have will break through them and there are enough geth patrols on that tower to take a turian outpost. I spotted at least two armatures outside the gate along with eighteen foot mobiles. Its fortified well and we don't have the resources to infiltrate it."

"Not to mention that Saren could have geth bomber and assault drones on our position very quickly. This is a geth fortress, for all we know he could have a geth fleet in orbit." Rentola added.

"Talking about that, I can actually picked up multiple contacts in a tight orbit around the planet," Imness added, "According to my scans, they had a fleet of eight frigates, twenty fighter wings with six fighters each, four light cruisers and two heavy cruisers, accompanied by a larger signature designated as a battleship. The geth don't use destroyers. That fleet is mobilizing for something but I don't know what."

"If the geth is mobilizing a fleet that large they must be planning to launch a full-scale attack." Kirrahe summarized.

"I'd also like to add that I detected a massive power source on scanners originating from the fortress itself just before crashing," Imness reported and all five salarians turned towards him with expectant looks. Kirrahe asked, "How massive?" Kirrahe asked.

"Bigger than that of a turian Vanguard-Class dreadnought and definitely three times bigger. It was the power source for a ship sir. My guess, it's that geth flagship they mentioned in their reports." Imness guessed and everyone fell silent.

"If the geth's command ship is docked with this geth fortress on Virmire, then that can only mean two things; Saren is definitely here and this is his base of operations," Kirrahe declared, "Once that transmitter is up, we contact the Council and get them to send a fleet. I think this war has just found its climax, men. Let it be known that this war ended on Virmire." Kirrahe declared and motioned for Manos to holster his sniper rifle and follow him back to camp.

The trip back to the salarian's base camp was slow as they had to make sure the geth weren't following them. Once back at camp, they had secured their weapons and scavenged what they could from the crash site. The only thing that had survived the crash was the ship's drive core, and that wasn't much use to them against for supplying power to their prefab camp.

Heading into the command bunker, Kirrahe set out a plan of infiltration on Saren's fortress.

"Now we know Saren and his flagship are hidden in this base," Kirrahe stated, showing them the map of the base that the VI had taken just before impact, "However, we don't know much else. The base is a combination of turian and geth design, but not much else. The base is also a full three kilometers in length and four in width, so its fairly large."

"The base is surrounded by planetary defense guns, all easily capable of ripping through a cruiser's shields in just one shot. We also know that two of the gatehouses also have planetary cannons. We can summarize that Saren has a full three divisions of geth troops inside, making this alittle bit harder. That is all we know, however."

"But that is where we come in men," Kirrahe declared, turning to Imness and Manos, "You two are to take a squad each of men and investigate the base with perfect infiltration. I want you to report back anything you find, I don't care what it is. Hell, I don't care if you tell me that Saren has a pet varren, I want to know about it."

"When we contact the Council, they need to know what they're up against. Defenses, troop numbers, Saren's plans, flagship's status, anything. If the Council has any brains however, they'll attempt a nuclear strike on the base. Any ground assault would result in failure and any fleet bombardment would be repelled by the anti-ship ground defense guns. So you get in, find what we need and report back. Clear?" Kirrahe asked.

"Yes sir!" Both Manos and Imness stated at the same time and rushed out to find their squads. At that moment, Rentola walked up behind Kirrahe and stood at attention.

"Sir, I'm happy to report that the transmitter will be ready by tomorrow." Rentola reported before leaving. Kirrahe simply nodded at the departing commander before looking back at the holographic layout of Saren's fort. He sighed.

_Let's hope they bring a BIG fleet._

* * *

_July 3, 2183_

_1618 hours. _

_Human Embassy, Citadel Embassies, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Captain David Edward Anderson, Ambassador Donnel Udina._

"Captain, this is all politics, you must understand that we can't just mobilize and assemble our fleets like a game of chess. We have to play this safe." Udina retorted and Anderson just slammed his fist into the table in anger, causing Udina to flinch alittle before recovering. If he was seen as a weak leader, it would destroy public morale and having Anderson of all people see him flinching would be even worse.

"Damn it Udina, you're thinking politically! You need to think like a military strategist! If we don't mobilize the Alliance now, then the geth will! You've seen the destructive capabilities of just one of their frigates! And lets not forget that damned flagship!" Anderson stated, "We don't mobilize and the geth will triumph, simple as that."

"And what of Arcturus? Or Jump Zero? Damn it Anderson, what of Earth? If we have the entire alliance navy out there searching for geth then we might as well be leaving Earth as open bait. The geth could invade the Sol system, destroy Arcturus and Jump Zero and take out the center of the Alliance! The parliament is on Arcturus, Anderson! Think of the consequences!" Udina punctuated with a point at the man.

But Anderson wasn't giving in that easily, "I'm not saying we leave Earth completely vulnerable. What we should do is let Fleet Admiral of the Navy Joseph Garrong deal with this. Let him handle the dispoisition of our fleets. The man helped win the bloody First Contact War and outwitted the greatest of turian admirals. He knows what he's doing."

"The exact same man who proposed we throw an entire fleet at the Citadel? The one who suggested we should turn Jump Zero into a ticking time bomb? The exact same man, who said we should invade bloody Palaven!? Are you insane?" Udina asked.

"I agree his MO is extreme at times, but the man is the next bloody Sun Tzu. He's a strategical genius. And lets face facts; giving him full emergency command of the Systems Alliance Navy is better than having our fleets sit around and do nothing while the geth systematically take out our colonies! We need to act now!" Anderson declared and brought up a hologram of the Council's tactics.

"Look at the council races! They've already planned out their defense! They've got the Annos Basin, Apien Crest and Athena Clusters completely secured and still have their ships spread out to defend the outer colonies. They've even conjured logistical support from the volus and hanar." Anderson finished.

"They have more ships! We have five fleets, Anderson! FIVE. Compared to the turian's ten fleets?" Udina asked.

"Its more than what the asari's got, and that's saying something! What we should also be doing is contacting the Migrant Fleet! They know the geth better than anyone." Anderson stated but Udina had had enough.

"You go too far Anderson! First you suggest giving command to a uncontrollable insanist and now you suggest calling those suit-rats for help? Do you know the image that'll plant on the Alliance?" Udina asked.

"Yes, it'll make us look politically correct and willing to shove our racism aside so we can protect our people! The quarians have already suffered for their mistake and we should be willing to give them a chance to redeem themselves! The human race can't judge them anyway. We weren't there three hundred years ago." Anderson stated.

"Even if we wanted to ask for their help we couldn't. The Migrant Fleet has cut off all communications with the Citadel and declared themselves a independent race. They're technically part of the Terminus Races now and want nothing to do with us. No, the flotilla isn't an option," Udina stated and then sighed, "As for this proposal of giving Garrong command of the fleets...

"I'll take a transport to Arcturus and present this to prime minister Dali Song. If she accepts, then we'll see what Garrong does. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some things to present to the Council." Udina declared and immediately shoved past Anderson, leaving the room and the N7 officer just rolled his eyes as he turned back to the display.

_Politicians. They're all the same. _

"Sir, you've got a call coming in from Fleet Admiral Hackett. Would you like me to patch him through?" The Human Embassy VI, inadequently called 'Troll' asked. Anderson nodded and he turned to the holographic terminal to await the call's connection. Upon completion, he was greeted with Hackett's face.

The man was definitely old, very old being seventy-four years old. His white beard and moustache were mixing into a solid grey color with his eyebrows sporting a very similiar color. His face was wrinkled with his age and his alliance admiral's cap lay firmly seated over his greyed hair. The man's voice was gruff for his age.

"Anderson, I hope the politicians haven't been too much to handle." Hackett asked.

Anderson chuckled. "Udina's a handful, old friend. How's the Fifth Fleet?"

"We're currently refueling at Jump Zero. We're scheduled to head out and join in the 19th War Games in the Asgard System, Exodus Cluster in a couple of days. The McKinley's also getting weapon upgrades. Been months since we last got a retrofit, I'd figure this dreadnought was feeling a little obsolete." Hackett stated but ever since the word 'Asgard' left his mouth, he had sounded worried.

"Something tells me you didn't just call for a quick check in call. What's happened?" Anderson asked, noticing the worry in Hackett's voice.

"I just got contacted by Captain Shepard. Anderson, a very serious situation just popped up and Lieutenant Commander Shepard hasn't responded to his mother's attempts to contact him. She contacted me and I've decided to fill you in on the situation." Hackett stated and began his explanation.

What Anderson heard was something horrifying. Yes, Shepard had to be informed of this immediately.

* * *

_July 3, 2183_

_1700 hours. _

_Cargo Hold, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for Thessia._

_Eden Prime War._

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

"Chief Williams, do you have a moment to talk?" Tali asked wearily, wringing her fingers as she stood next to the human marine. Ashley froze for half a second before turning to face the quarian, smiling as she dropped the mod she was preparing to attach to her rifle and spun to face her.

"Sure, Tali. And please, just call me Ashley or even better, Ash. Mostly everyone else does." Ashley finished, still smiling at the quarian. Tali found it...disturbing for some reason. Thinking deeply, she remembered that reason. Ashley had once shown extreme prejudice to not just her, but everyone else on the ship; especially Garrus. But over the course of their time on the Normandy, the marine had softened up.

"I just wanted to talk with you about...well, anything. I've noticed you've become less...vehement towards me and I'd like to understand how that came about." Tali asked, already mentally kicking herself. _Maybe I shouldn't have tried to do this. _

Ashley took no insult and replied with a smile, "Of course Tali. Look, I understand that I was a bit of a bitch when we first met," Ashley replied, trying to form her next few words, "Well, what I want to say I suppose is that...Shepard changed me. Made me see the bigger picture."

"How?" Tali asked, visibly curious.

"Well...I'd better start from the beginning," Ashley stated, "I've had a thing against aliens ever since my family was blacklisted for my grandfather's actions in the First Contact War. General Williams surrendered his entire unit to turian forces on Shanxi, first man to surrender to alien forces. He was dishonored, stripped of his title and our family blacklisted. We can't rank over Corporal in the army or Gunnery Chief in the marines. I'm as high as we're going to get." Ashley said with melancholy.

"I didn't know that. That's horrible." Tali stated. _Her whole family disgraced, and for what? Surrender? People like General Williams would have been honored by my people. We are peaceful; we always look for a way out of conflict, surrender always being popular. Never to the geth, as they don't accept prisoners, but to other races we do. To disgrace a whole family for it? Unthinkable._

"Doesn't warrant me being a bitch though. Not your fault that my family was blacklisted. Afterall, you're not turian and you would have been a baby when it happened." Ashley stated.

"Actually, I wasn't even in my mother's womb," Tali corrected, "First Contact War was thirty years ago. I'm twenty-three."

"Only 23? Damn that's young. I'm entering my thirties," Ashley stated, "Still, you ain't the only one. Shepard's about twenty-eight, last I heard," Ashley then began chuckling, "And last I heard, Liara makes us all look like toddlers. She's one hundred and three and she's YOUNG for her race. Damn. Asari aging, gotta love it." Ashley said with extra enthusiasum.

"Yes. I'm on my rite of passage...wait, aren't we talking about you?" Tali added with a smile. She could really start to like Ashley. Yes, a friendship was in order.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Ashley apologized before clearing her throat and continuing, "Anyway, I guess Shepard just rubbed off on me. He's the kind of man I look up to, as a mentor," Ashley stated, "And when your mentor tells you that there is nothing wrong in finding friendship in a non-human, you know to do what he says. Anderson was his mentor, how could you not?"

"Anderson?" Tali asked.

"Shepard's best friend and mentor, they go way back. You met him in the human embassies," Ashley stated, "The man's a symbol of what humanity's capable of and even Shepard looks up to him. Some say he even sees Anderson as the father he never had."

"Ah yes, I remember now. So you're saying Shepard got you into liking aliens just because he's your mentor?" Tali asked.

"He's not officially my mentor, but that's how I see it," Ashley declared, "But still, I guess nothing is official with this crew. What about you? Who do you see as your mentor?" Ashley asked and caused Tali to freeze her train of thought. A very good question. One she knew the answer away straight away.

"Kal'Reegar," Tali stated, "He's a quarian marine on the fleet and one of the best. Best I know actually. I spend alot of time with him, usually talking. We're close friends and we spend most of our time talking or training. He helped me train for my pilgrimage." Tali explained but she noticed a glint in Ashley's eye. _Uh-oh._

"So...you and him, huh?" Ashley said with a snarky grin.

For a moment Tali was confused, not knowing what Ashley meant but when she matched the grin up with what she said...

"Keelah! No, it's nothing like that! We're just friends! Well at least I think we are...maybe we're not...no, we are definitely just friends..." Tali began stuttering, not knowing what to do with herself. _Me and Kal? I guess it's possible, he has been extradinaryily nice to me recently...no! He's a marine and I'm a engineer! _

"Whoa, slow down there Tali, I was only joking," Ashley stated, holding her hands up to prove this, "Got any sisters? Brothers?"

"The zero population growth policy kinda makes it impossible to have brothers and sisters, so no. Although, I consider Kal to be like a brother to me. We're in no way romantically involved, but we are sort of brother and sister." Tali stated.

"That sucks, I know I couldn't imagine not having a brother or sister," Ashley admitted, "What about your parents?"

That caused Tali to freeze for a moment. She really hated the topic of her family and for multiple reasons. Ashley didn't know though, so she had no reason to chastise her for bringing it up. The quarian sighed as she spoke.

"My father is an admiral on the admiralty board, the head of it actually. He...never finds time to spend with me. It's always work. Sometimes I wonder if he even cares about me anymore," Tali stated, "My mother...she died of a ship-wide infection when I was just eight. My father has been distant ever since."

"That's horrible. My parents are still alive, fighting for the Alliance. I'm so sorry Tali." Ashley stated and the comment about her parents being alive felt like a stab to the gut for Tali. Yet again, not her fault. Just a misuse of words.

"It's not your fault, it's something I've learnt to live with," Tali responded, "I'm a quarian. I can't live in my own sadness. The fleet must always take priority. It's a sad result of my people's predicament," Tali finished, "What about you? You haven't told me anything about you or your family."

Ashley smiled wider at the mention of that, "I have three sisters, all of which are married currently. I was the eldest in the group, but I guess the rest of my sisters didn't want to take up the military tradition of our family." Ashley stated.

"Tell me about you and your sisters." Tali asked and Ashley laughed as she began her story.

"I'm a colony kid. I was born April 14th, 2158 on Sirona, distant human colony in the Ursae Majoris system. My full name is Ashley Madeline Williams and our family descends from a long list of military soldiers. Our father was in the military as a Alliance corpsman while our mother was a serviceman third class on the SSV Pyongyang."

"My sisters are Abby, Lynn and Sarah, like I said, all three are married," Ashley stated, "Our parents were out alot so I was usually the one to look after my little sisters and because of it we developed this...tight bond that held us together. We were so much like a family then."

"My parents...they never got far. Like I said, my parents never got above serviceman third class and it was all because of...well, what happened during the war against the turians," Ashley admitted with some shame, smiling at Tali when the quarian nodded to let her know she held no venom towards the woman, "Well, I lived up to my family's tradition. When I was eighteen and eligible, I signed up."

"I got assigned to the Recruit Training Depot in Macapá, Brazil, back on Earth. My superiors seemed to notice my love for assault rifles, so they made sure I was stocked up well on them," Ashley said with a laugh, "I also certified for zero-gravity combat training aboard the Rakesh Sharma Orbital Platform, also over Earth. It's one of many hundreds of defensive platforms in Earth orbit."

"For Hostile Environment Assault Training, I was assigned to Fort Charles Upham on Saturn's moon, Titan. It's one of the planets in our system. It's where I earned a commendation for a tactical procedure I made on a turian emplacement," Ashley stated with some pride, "That's where I thought it was going to get better for my family. The drill instructor there, I think I remember his name being Gunnery Chief Ellison. He took notice of me and assigned me to squad leader and eventually platoon guide. I was so happy."

"That wasn't the end of it either. I got praised for my military leading and Nirali told me I was a 'tough but fair' in my leadership skills. We became such...close friends." Ashley said with sadness and Tali was confused.

"What happened to Nirali?" Tali asked.

Tali could see the tears in Ashley's eyes, "Killed. When the geth attacked Eden Prime, our commanding officer was killed so I took command of the remnants of our forces. She...was killed trying to send out a distress call. I'm just glad her sacrifice wasn't in vain. If it hadn't been for her, the geth would have taken us by surprise. She was married too, can't imagine what her husband must be going through."

"But I guess I should really get on with the story. I said my goodbyes to Nirali a while ago," Ashley stated and wiped her eyes, moving to continue, "That's where things went bad though. Despite my scores, high command was prejudiced against our family too much to give me a promotion. Instead, they demoted me to squad leader and kept me on ground side garrisons. I was never let onto the battlefield, only left to defend colony worlds, like Eden Prime." Ashley punctuated with anger in her tone.

"Because of this I kind of...entered bitch mode. I was terrible with civilians, very aggressive to incompotent soldiers and I was very biased in terms of galactic politics, but I still hold that close," Ashley stated, "I guess that's all to be said. You know the rest; Eden Prime got attacked, I was the only survivor and Shepard took me on his crusade to kill Saren and stop the geth."

"What about your sisters and parents? I never really learnt much about them," Tali asked, "They sound like nice people, the tone you use when mentioning them."

"Oh they really are. My parents have retired, they live on Earth currently, somewhere in the UNAS, Canada. I never really talk to them much because of my military dedication. As for my sisters; Abby became a mechanic and got married to her boss; Stephen I think it was. Yeah, they live on Sirona still. Guess she's not willing to leave too soon. She doesn't have children that I know of."

"Lynn left Sirona and was on Illium last I heard; got bonded to an asari merchant trader and have two children. Asari of course, you know how their genetic coding works. I think she works with that asari, name being Hari."

"As for Sarah, she's probably the biggest in our family. She got married to this guy named Harrison who's apparently the founder of Rosenkov Materials; by the way, that's the company that produced Wrex's shotgun, hence the russian name," Ashley stated and was about to continue when Tali held her hand up.

"Russian?" Tali asked, the word not translating.

"Oh, sorry. It's a country on Earth, part of the Union of European Nations, or UEN for short. Probably the biggest nation on Earth. Not very big on economy though, been bankrupt for more than a hundred years. Never recovered from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think we better get back on track."

"Anyway, Sarah's married to him and has like eleven children. She's the co-director of Rosenkov Materials, so she sends me some of the latest in Rosenkov gadgets everytime she can. Although she remembers to avoid the things that are non-assault rifles." Ashley joked.

"Your family sounds like interesting people, I wish we had such diversity. On the fleet, we're all considered family. Anyone who is as old as we are are considered brothers and sisters," Tali revealed, "We call them fleet-sisters and fleet-brothers. My own auntie isn't even biologically related to me; we're of two different clans."

"What clan are you? And who's your auntie?" Ashley asked, surprised that even aliens have much the same family generation system as humans.

"Clan Zorah, it's in my name. My auntie is Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay of the Raan clan." Tali stated.

"Another admiral? Are these admirals authority figures on a military basis or are they held to higher esteem?" Ashley asked.

Tali explained how quarian politics worked and how the admiralty board was mainly the military side of political welfare in the fleet.

"Interesting. How many other admirals do you have ties with?" Ashley asked.

"None to be honest. My mother had once been admiral of the patrol fleet; then she resigned with the rest of the original admiralty when they voted against the Conclave's decision to bombard Librus. They wanted to colonize it but we knew this would only provoke war with the turians; one we were in no state to wage. Shala then took over for her."

"My father is an admiral and so is my auntie, I guess I'm also technically related to Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema of the Heavy fleet. He's a childhood friend of my father's; completed their pilgrimage together actually. He's a heavy hater of the geth just like my father, so I guess that makes me like him even more. Even gave me some military training before I left on pilgrimage." Tali stated.

"Was your mother a nice person?" Ashley asked.

"Well, she was-" Tali never got to finish as alarms blared all over the ship, the room turning blood red as they looked around in shock, alarms still blaring. It wasn't long before Shepard's voice came over the intercom.

"General's Quarters, General's Quarters. All hands man your battlestations," Shepard's voice declared, "This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. General's Quarters, all hands man battlestations and prepare for combat readiness."

Tali simply looked at Ashley and they shrugged, grabbing their weapons and rushing to the elevator, followed by Garrus and Wrex. Tali stopped halfway and upon Ashley's confused look, held her hand up.

"My place is in engineering. I have to assume my battlestations." Tali stated and upon seeing Ashley's nod, attached her shotgun to the back of her waist and sprinted into engineering.

_Are the geth attacking?_

* * *

_July 3, 2183_

_1709 hours. _

_Captain's Quarters, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for Thessia._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard._

Marcus sighed as he entered his cabin and began removing his armor, starting with his helmet as he lay it down on the desk and then began systematically removing the rest of his armor. It wasn't long before it lay in a neat pile in his carboard, moving into the shower cubicle. A quick shower, review of reports and then a few hours of rest.

As he turned on the shower and felt the warm water wash over him, he felt the tenseness of his muscles lessen. Showers were the miracles of creation; he felt like everytime he took one, a world of pressure was taken off his shoulders. Yes, he loved showers, who doesn't? As he took the shower he remembered all the missions he had been through, the friendships he had developed.

_What a wild ride. Fighting armies of geth and teaming up with the unliklies. And having a crush on an alien..._No, he dropped that thought. _I've already creeped her out, I don't think mentioning it again will be a good idea. Just let it die off slowly. _He then remembered the visions the prothean beacon had implanted in his mind.

_If another beacon could really fix the imagery, then shouldn't we be trying to find it? For all we know, Saren could already have it and be using it to find the conduit. I can't be wasting time waiting for the Council's next assignment. I'm a council spectre, I handle this my way. What I should be doing is chasing down leads on Saren's whereabouts._

But what leads? The Council themselves had the STG and SIA to rely on for intelligence, yet they hadn't uncovered anything on the location of Saren. Yet again, the council hadn't really been taking an active role in the conflict. They were idly sitting by while the geth attacked human colonies, keeping their own forces out of the conflict. Those self-ambitious morons were so caught up in the 'peace of the galaxy' when they should be looking out their window and seeing the bigger picture.

Could they contact the Migrant Fleet? Tali could give us the location of the flotilla and we could ask them for help. Knowing their history with the geth, he was sure they'd be more than willing to help destroy the geth. It was a matter of contact.

But even that was doubtful. The galaxy had for too long been vehement towards them, treated them like disgusting garbage. If the Council ask them for help, they'd find themselves rejected on the spot. No, they were going to have to win this war without them.

He sighed as he turned off the shower and dried himself, quickly clothing himself before sitting down at his desk and bringing up his terminal. The orange glow illuminated the dark room as he accessed his private messages, checking to see if there were any important items.

Nothing apparently. Just spam. Top 10 ways to look younger. Delete. Top 5 ways to slow down aging. Delete. The Best Online Dating Sites. Definite Delete. Asari and Human Prosititutes for free? MOST CERTAINLY delete. Miracle Pills. Delete. Latest Issues of Fornax. Delete. God, how many of these worthless emails was he getting? Preorder Morning War: Armageddon. I guess I'll take a look at it.

Once he had cleared his emails of spam, he checked the important emails to find a message from Captain Anderson. It had been marked urgent and he immediately moved to see what it was. Without a moment of hesitation, he opened the email. He even noticed that it was over a military email network. Definitely important

_From: Cpt. David Edward Anderson, Citadel Embassies._

_To: Lt Cmdr. Marcus Lee Shepard, SSV Normandy. _

_Subject: Current events._

_Shepard, I don't mean to distract you from your mission, but we have serious intel dictating immediate attention. It's got the entire Alliance parliament trepidated and most of our colonies on high alert. This needs to be discussed over secure channels. This is not a drill and not a hoax. It's all hands on deck for this._

_To: Lt Cmdr. Marcus Lee Shepard, SSV Normandy._

_From: Cpt. David Edward Anderson, Citadel Embassies._

Marcus had widened his eyes at the sheer intensity of the words, of the danger hidden in them. Without hesitation, he clicked the link to Anderson's military address and clicked it, waiting for the call to connect. When it did, he found Anderson eagerly awaiting.

"Good, Hackett said your mother had tried to contact you but you hadn't answered." Anderson said hurriedly, his voice laced with worry. What was going on?

"What's going on sir? You made it sound very urgent." Marcus asked, confused by the hurry.

"Extremely urgent. It's got Hackett and the brass worked up. The citizenry has been kept in the dark to keep the panic down. Look, we need your help and your veteran N7. You're a negoitator. We need your help desperately with this."

"Negoitator? N7? Anderson, what requires my infiltration and persuasive skills that is this urgent? What the hell is going on?" Marcus asked.

"Shepard, exactly four hours ago, batarian terrorists hijacked Asterioid X57; it was a asteriod taken from the belt surrounding Asgard's sun and was being mined for important minerals. These scientists have been taken hostage and the asteriod hijacked."

Marcus felt anger build up in him. _Batarians. It's like Torfan, Elysium and even Mindoir all over again. Except this will end differently. Noone is dying this time, not under my command. _

"So you need my infiltration skills to rescue the scientists. But why negoitating? Batarians aren't known for their diplomacy, sir." Marcus stated.

"Obviously, Shepard, but we're hoping they're feeling lenient. The scientists can easily be rescued but what's extremely serious about this is that the batarians have activated the torches, that's kinda the asteriod's version of engines and has set it on a course for a highly populated area." Anderson stated.

"Where Anderson? Where is the asteriod heading and why?" Marcus asked and Anderson's next words hit him look fifty tons of solid rock. He was speechless.

"They plan to use the asteriod as a bomb Shepard. Remember the dinosaurs? Exactly same scale. Except this time, it won't just be the animals..."

"It's headed for Terra Nova."

* * *

**"According to all records Asteriod X57 suffered a severe fault in its torches and had simply needed repairs. You have another version of the story?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"That's what they say to keep public morale up. If they learn that the batarians were ready to drop asteriods on people and something as powerful as an alliance dreadnought could stop it, do you know what would happen? Forget hurting the Alliance's image, it'd bloody send everyone into panic."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"So you went with Shepard and deployed on X57 to stop the terrorists. Then what happened?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Torfan hadn't hurt him enough, the memories weren't painful enough. So what do they do? They bring along the one guy Shepard hated more than anyone else."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**Arcturus - The home of the Alliance Parliament and capital of the Systems Alliance. Arcturus is not the biggest space station made by the Alliance, but it is by far the most important. Located in the Arcturus Stream Cluster and named after the system it's based in, Arcturus Station is definitely a sight to behold. Arcturus is a 5-kilometer (length and width) Stanford Torus-class structure that can be compared to something like the structure of a skyscraper, except with winged platforms and hangers. Construction began in 2151 and was completed in 2162, utilising many metal-rich asteriods that remain nearby, and political headquarters of the Systems Alliance since the First Contact War. It serves as the central hub for the Alliance Navy and is closely guarded by the First and Fifth fleets, both dubbed the 'Arcturus Fleets.' It has a population of eighty-eight thousand, including the parliament.**

**Jump Zero - Known to most as Gagarin Station, but collioquially named Jump Zero, is the largest space station to be made by humanity. It was given its name of 'Jump Zero' because it had originally been the staging point for a failed FTL jump before the discovery of the Charon Relay, aka the Sol Relay. It is now used for deep-space telemetry, exploration and for conducting experiments too dangerous to do near expensive assets. It is currently in orbit of Earth and is a staggering eight kilometers in length. It has a permanent population of One hundred and twenty thousand and remains the center for human biotic research to this day. **


	24. Chapter 19 Terra from the Heavens

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER NINETEEN:**

**TERRA FROM THE HEAVENS **

_July 4, 2183_

_0720 hours. _

_Main Bridge, Everest-Class Dreadnought SSV Orizaba HA-2, In Orbit over Terra Nova. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Captain Hannah Rila Shepard, Commander Phillipo Coniglione._

"Deploy spy drone A643-222-167 and have it on a patrol route towards X57. Keep me alerted on its whereabouts. Contact the THS Spiritual Ascendance and see if they can get their own drone out there. I've contacted my son and he should be here soon. Just keep an eye on that asteroid." Hannah nodded and Phillip acknowledged her orders, immediately relaying them to her subordinates.

Hannah lay back in her seat as she watched the viewscreen depicting Terra Nova and the slowly moving asteroid that was on a collision course with it. The asteriod was massive; being a staggering ten kilometers in diameter. If it impacted with Terra Nova's surface; the effect would be like the extinction of the dinosaurs all over again, leaving the planet completely uninhabitable.

"Drone deployed, ma'am. The Spiritual Ascendance reports that their vessel is not fitted with them as turian dreadnoughts don't use them." Phillip reported back and Hannah sighed heavily as she hit the panel on the side of her chair and brought up the statistics in front of her. The turians had broken off and the asari had distanced themselves by 2,011,771,040 kilometers. That just left Hannah's battlegroup and Rear Admiral Osprey Wilfield wasn't going to attack anytime soon.

"Damn it, well I guess that is good enough. I want mission reports being relayed back to Arcturus constantly," Hannah ordered and Phillip immediately saluted before turning and leaving. Hannah shook her head as she watched the planet; such tranquility, put under threat from such a threat like this.

_Hurry on up, Mark. We don't stop that asteriod and over four million people are going to die. I won't let that happen. Neither will you Mark. _As she mused, she looked down on where she predicted the capital of Terra Nova, Scott, was. _I hope._

* * *

_July 4, 2183_

_0751 hours. _

_Cargo Hold, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Approaching Asteriod X57._

_Eden Prime War. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Fitting on the last part of his armor, Marcus looked up to see his squad begin to assemble around him. Wrex had already been here before he arrived, having grabbed his Solokov and shield generator. The krogan never took off his armor, so that wasn't really something to worry about. Tali had entered from engineering, prepared for battle, having upgraded her shield generators.

Garrus and Kaidan had arrived shortly after, quickly followed by Liara and Ashley. So it wasn't long before his entire team was there, ready to follow him into battle. They would be inserting in the Mako, hoping to take the batarians by surprise. The Normandy's stealth drive allowed them to get in quietly, so the batarians wouldn't notice the Mako landing.

They would move in on the central command structure, rescue any stragglers, shut off the torches, eliminate the extremists and free the scientists. His orders were to negoitate, but he wasn't wasting time with these people. The batarians were devious and ruthless, he wasn't letting them live to cause more harm.

Fitting on his helmet, he picked up his assault rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle and pistol from the armoury and attached them to his armor, ready to enter battle. Seeing that his team was also ready, he assembled them around the Mako, waiting them before starting his speech.

"You already know what's going on, so I'll save you the details. We're dealing with a hostage situation, so watch your fire and take out as many of these batarian bastards as you can. We don't know how many there are, so we'll have to be careful. We take out the torches, the batarians and anything else that threatens the colony and the scientists. Clear?"

Upon seeing everyone's nod, he motioned for them to pile into the Mako as he opened the hatch, everyone stepping inside as he assumed the driver's seat, Tali quickly sitting next to him and Kaidan assuming the gunner's seat. With everyone strapped in, Joker's voice came over the comm.

"X57 in sight. Prepare for drop in exactly five seconds." Joker stated, the cargo hold door sliding open to omit them into space. All they saw was X57 speeding past as the Normandy flew over, ready to deploy them. They would be out of contact with the Alliance vessels and council ships in the vicinity as to not alert the batarians.

After five seconds, Marcus acellerated forward and the Mako rolled right out of the cargo hold, gliding through the air, causing a familiar feeling of vertigo that the team was now well accustomed to. As the Normandy disappeared from their sight, the Mako continued to fall towards the surface of X57 until they hit the surface, the Mako coming to a stop a few meters away from the impact zone.

Without so much as waiting, Marcus hit the acellerator once again and the Mako continued its course across the asteriod's surface, heading towards a large structure in the distance. All around them were large, 300 feet tall structures that were releasing red fumes that could only be the torches. Shutting them off manually would take too much time; they had only an hour until the asteriod was trapped in the planet's gravitational pull. They had to end this at the source.

The command structure was fairly large; it had a large, thin spire extending out of it, with multiple defensive turrets placed around it. The main entrance lead to a garage for vehicles and was sealed by a blast door; but that was nothing the Mako's upgraded main guns couldn't deal with. It would take them ten minutes to reach the base.

Tali had tried starting conversation with Marcus, but he had either told her that he was concentrating or had ignored her all together. He seemed soley focused on reaching that base. But that wasn't all; he had a look of pure hate, like he wanted to rip apart the nearest person to satisfy his bloodlust. Could it be the memories of Elysium that affect him as such?

"Shepard, you've been rather silent," Tali asked, "What's wrong?"

This time however, Shepard had finally answered her, "Batarians. All my life, I've had to deal with those sadistic bastards," he explained, "I witnessed the murder commited on Mindoir, the slaughter on Elysium and the massacre on Torfan. All my life, I've had to fight them. Now I'm doing it again, even as we fight the greater enemy. I plan to make sure this is the last."

"How?" Tali asked.

Marcus' answer was cold and calculated, "By sending them a message they can't ignore." With that, silence befell them once again. Shepard's words had struck Tali's center and it left her positively scared at the prospect of what Shepard might do. _What if he does something foolish and actually kills one of the scientists? Was he capable of that?_

So the last eight minutes were spent in total solace, not a single word mentioned or even a noise muttered. Just the sound of the Mako's wheels hitting rock and dust, kicking it into the empty void of space. When they finally arrived at the base, they heard nothing. Nothing for a few seconds, anyway.

In the space of no time, the garage door slid open and a full two squads of batarian soldiers in EVA suits ran out and opened fire on the Mako, some armed with rocket launchers while others were armed with assault rifles. Apparently the batarians had control of base defenses as well, as the turrets also opened fire.

Due to Tali's quick reaction time, the rockets and turrets barely did any damage and the standard foot soldier's attempts at damaging the Mako were laughable, so the battle was short. Kaidan ripped into the batarian flanks with ease, taking out both enemy squads in next to no time at all. The turrets were a matter of timed explosive ordnance.

When the battle was over, the Mako advanced into the garage and Marcus switched off all power in the vehicle. Without even waiting for his team, he unclipped his harness, grabbed his rifle, shotgun and sniper rifle, attached them to his armor and darted out of the Mako, waiting for them outside.

The garage was dark; the lighting of the room had been cut off leaving it in perputual darkness. It was empty too, not a single vehicle inside of it except the Mako. The garage was also deathly silent, not a sound to be heard. The silence of space. Making sure his armor was sealed, Marcus waited for the rest of his squad to follow before entering the nearby elevator, selecting the central hub.

The elevator ride was done in complete silence. Not a single word or sound was made as the lift continued into the depths of the research facility. Tali slowly looked up at her commander and saw a face mixed with anger and sorrow. He was sad but also extremely vehement. Marcus either didn't notice her or ignored, either way he made no sign of noticing her glance and she quickly ripped her gaze away.

_I've never seen him like this before. Well, there was the incident with Stirling's death but...that couldn't be happening again, could it? Keelah...ancestors help those batarians if he does. _Tali mused.

The elevator finally stopped and Marcus already had his rifle out and bared before the door even finished opening, the spectre running down the hallway and closely followed by his squad. Tali immediately snapped out her armageddon shotgun and raced after them. The corridor wasn't as dark as the garage and had multiple doors leading into offices. All the doors had crimson red panels; all locked or destroyed.

It wasn't long before they arrived in the atrium to find the dead bodies of two alliance guards and six scientists; all killed by enforcement gauntlets. They examined the room for a couple of seconds before Marcus opened the door leading into the central hub, running up the stairs and not long after, followed by his squad.

The Central Hub was huge. It was 78 meters long and 66 meters wide and had a single, bright white light hanging from the ceiling, bathing the place in serene light. In the center was a huge reactor that must have been powering the torches and the facility's power. The stairway they had climbed up and lead up to a balcony on the second level of the room, a second stairway just infront of them leading to the main level below.

The middle was circular and surrounded the reactor, while having two more stairways flanking it and leading to a control hub-looking area in the front of it. The room was circular, so therefore the balcony was circular. The left side was mostly office complexes while the right was laboratories. The main level was also littered with brownish, rectangular shaped bunkers, much like the ones on Eden Prime and Feros.

The room was eerily silent, too silent. All around them were the forms of at least a company-sized unit of batarian soldiers, all with their weapons bared on them. Marcus focused his assault rifle on the head of the nearest batatrian, ready to shoot when he had to. The terrorists all wore lime-green light armor while all wielding obsolete rocket launchers, assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles and shotguns.

The batarians faces were a fix of alien features; they had a slimy appearence while looking very much like a reptile. Their four eyes were a pitch black color and were alligned vertically, two on each side of the face. They had slits for a nose and nostrils, small ears and had boney bulges on their face. Canine teeth were bared as the batarians faced them, anger welling up in them, varren sitting at their sides. The batarians were as ugly as they were sadistic.

It was only now that a familiar form walked into view on the main level and Marcus roared in anger as he pulled the weapon to aim directly at the batarian leader's head. He knew this man, even the laugh he gave at Marcus' fit of rage gave it away. His attempt at a parade rest, everything about it. The one batarian he hated the most stood before him.

"Balak." Marcus hissed, spitting the name like filth.

"Commander Shepard. You've changed since our last meeting on Torfan," Balak answered, his canine teeth spread in a smug grin, "Although I guess I shouldn't care. You couldn't possibly understand what we're trying to achieve here."

"What I understand is that you plan to drop an asteriod on a planet with four million people on it! You'll kill them Balak! You want to be responsible for the deaths of millions? Or is that good old batarian logic at work? It sounds like you want a repeat of Elysium!" Marcus roared as he lowered his rifle and walked up to Balak, stopping inches from his face.

Balak's response was a low growl, "You took what was rightfully ours!" He responded, glaring daggers at the spectre, "We had a future in the Skylillian Verge and you humans just flood in and take it all! Elysium could have been a beautiful batarian colony! But you humans just had to take it all! The Verge was ours!" Balak roared.

"So you'll just drop an asteriod on a colony full of innocent people to prove your point? When you invaded Elysium we unleashed karma upon you and invaded Torfan," Marcus stated, jabbing a finger into the batarian's chest, "You do this and we will drop an asteriod on Khar'Shan. You really willing to do this?"

Outraged, Balak struck back, "You can't possibly understand what my people have been through! To be thrown out and cast aside! We are exiles! No better than the quarians that they also threw out! Discarded! WE are a broken people!" Balak stated as he turned around and leaned on the railing encircling the reactor.

"You brought that upon yourselves!" Marcus shouted back, "You attacked a free human colony with defenseless civilians on it! You declared unprovoked war over a territory you had no legal rights to. You could have found another area and settled it, but what did you do? You attacked. And then you wonder why we struck back." Marcus finished.

"You can't possibly understand!" Balak growled as he sent a fist into the railing. Calming himself, he lowered his voice as he turned around, his troops descending down the stairs.

"Actually, you just don't want to understand. Typical human thought," Balak stated, "You're too late to stop us. I've set a bomb up on a timer that will kill the scientists in less than fifteen minutes. You can either stop it or fight us. Be aware that if you do try and stop me, you won't have time to stop the bomb afterwards. Make your choice, human." Balak replied with a quick grin.

Marcus simply growled. _Son of a bitch coward; using defenseless scientists as a bloody escape route to freedom. It's bloody Torfan all over again. _Marcus began to think over the decision, looking away from his squad as he did. Balak backed off as he leaned on the railing, growling as he thought through. Save the scientists and let Balak escape again, or let the scientists die and end Balak once and for all.

He slammed the railing with his fist as he thought it through. Tali just watched the man as he growled in irritation, obviously troubled by the decision. Who wouldn't be? He had the chance to kill a lifelong enemy; but he also had the chance to save more lives. Tali continued to watch him as he thought through the decision and for a second; a tear strolled down her face.

She had watched him on Feros save all those people's lives. Not once, not for a second, did he hesitate in saving them all. On Noveria, he had shown mercy to Benezia and let her have her final moments with her daughter. And on Therum, he had saved Liara despite the fact that she could be an enemy spy. Shepard had done all of that and she had no doubt that he would make the right decision now.

She didn't care if Liara had taken him. She wanted to show that his squad was his friends and they were here to help. Without thinking, she moved forward and lay a three-fingered hand on his shoulder and he immediately stopped moving, slowly moving his head to look into her eyes. They just stood there in total silence, gazing into each other's eyes until Shepard finally ripped them away, knowing what his decision was.

Looking back at Balak, he moved to stand right in front of him.

"You get to live this time Balak, but don't think I'm done with you. I will hunt you to the ends of the galaxy until I find you. I will make you pay for what you did to my team on Torfan, to those people on Elysium and what you almost did to them here. Do not think this is over," Marcus spat, now itches from his face, "For it's far from that."

Balak simply glared at him for one last time before moving up the stairs and leaving, waving his hand for his troops to follow him, and after sharing one last glance at Shepard, Balak left, his company following behind him. When everybody else wasn't looking, Marcus looked at Tali and smiled warmly before moving down the stairs and towards the reactor control hub, motioning for Tali to follow.

That she did and it wasn't long before she found herself standing before the reactor's control console. Multiple statistics and readouts ran across the screen, all in english, but her translator was able to translate most of it. It had been built to utilize all universal languages for pilgrimage purposes.

"Tali, I want you to shut down the torches. I don't care if you have to shut down the entire reactor, just make sure this asteriod doesn't enter Terra Nova's orbit, understand?" Marcus ordered and Tali gave a hesitant nod. Marcus was about to leave when he noticed Tali's skeptical position and he put his hand on her shoulder in much the same way she had to him.

"I have faith in you that you can do it. Don't let me down Tali." Marcus stated and winked, causing Tali to smile as she set about her task and Marcus ran back up the stairs, Diamond Back in hand. Back at the top, he saw that his squad was waiting for him. Without even giving them a chance to ask where Tali was, he approached Garrus.

"Garrus, move up back to the balcony and locate that bomb and disarm it." Marcus ordered, leaving Garrus lost for words. He wanted him to disarm the bombs? He had BASIC demolitions expertise! He didn't have enough to disarm a damn bomb! Why did he always find himself in these impossible situations?

"Don't shit yourself too much Garrus," Marcus stated, noticing his shift in posture from a confident one to a doubtful one, "You'll have Kaidan and Ashley assisting you. Wrex and Liara, you're with me. Let's stop Balak." Marcus declared and Garrus, Kaidan and Ashley immediately rushed off to find the bomb and disarm it, while Marcus, followed by Wrex and Liara, moved back outside in pursuit of Balak.

Their footsteps echoed throughout the complex as they pursued Balak and his troops, but by the time they reached the garage, passed the Mako and got outside, they found that they were too late.

Rising up from behind them, the silhouette of a batarian cruiser rose up from behind them, casting them in dark light as they blocked out the bright light of Asgard itself. The batarian vessel was old and worn, taking on the appearence of a 21st century capsized US warship, with a brownish and aged color and two engines at the back. The ship brisled with obsolete and outdated weaponry ranging from the old SSGM systems to heavier M22A gatling guns.

The cruiser wouldn't stand a chance against a GARDIAN laser strike from the Normandy. Keying his comm, he contacted Joker. The Normandy, since dropping them off, had doubled back and entered formation with the Orizaba battlegroup.

"Commander, how's things looking down there? Kicking batarian ass?" Joker asked.

"Balak was here and he had a company of batarian troops. He's escaping on a batarian cruiser inbound for the asgard relay. How long until you can intercept?" Marcus asked.

"Not fast enough sir. Ten minutes. The cruiser will be long on its way to the Kite's Nest by then, Shepard." Joker reported and Marcus cursed under his breath, watching as the Kugalth-Class batarian battlecruiser disappeared from sight. Balak had escaped his grasp once again.

"Copy that Normandy. Contact my mother and relay the information. Tell her to send search and recovery teams to search for survivors. Shepard out." Marcus ordered, motioning for his team to double time it back inside so he could find out what was happening. He would find Balak eventually, and he wouldn't let him escape that time. Not again.

Just as they entered the elevator, Tali's voice screamed into his comm.

"Keelah! Shepard hurry up and get back here! The station VI is going crazy! Its activating assault drones, shutting down oxygen, its trying to kill us! Look ou-" An explosion was heard as everything on Tali's line went dark, blacked out by static.

"Tali? Tali!" Marcus shouted, but no response came. When the elevator finally reached its destination, Marcus rushed out, followed by Wrex and Liara, and sprinted back into the central hub. What he saw was madness. Lights were flickering on and off, Garrus, Kaidan and Ashley were fighting off non-stop waves of assault drones while oxygen levels lowered to dangerous levels.

He was brought back to the present by Tali's strained voice as she rushed towards him, her suit torn open by a blast and she was holding it tightly, trying to stop the bloodflow. Just as she reached him, she collapsed into his arms, passing out. If he didn't seal that wound fast, Tali would die of severe infection. Thinking quickly, he turned to Liara and Wrex.

"Go! Help the others take out those drones and kill that VI! I'll take care of Tali! GO!" Marcus barked and they immediately snapped into action, Wrex already snapping off shots at the drones as Liara hammered them with biotic attacks from afar. He turned back to Tali and put two fingers to the side of her neck. He was relieved to find a slow, but strong pulse.

Picking up her arm gently, he ripped a piece of cloth from the skin weave on his armor, using his teeth to rip it enough so that it would wrap perfectly around her arm. With hesitation, he wrapped her arm around completely and was relieved to see that it sealed her suit, keeping the bacteria out. He could hear the VI's synthetic undertone in the background, its voice unsurprisingly annoying.

"Unknown intruders. Countermeasures deployed. All response personnel have been terminated. Resuming prioritized counterdefenses." The voice droned on but Marcus shut it out and continued to tend to Tali's wound. Seeing that the suit breach was sufficiently sealed, he looked at Tali and raised her face so he could at her.

He didn't know if he had imagined it, but he swore he had seen a human nose for a second behind that mask. He had probably imagined it, getting too optimistic. Knowing she was unconscious and couldn't hear him, he said it anyway.

"Stay strong, Tali. We need you in this fight and so do your people. You can pull through this." Knowing noone was looking, he gave a quick peck of his lips on the top of her hood before jumping back into action, his rifle extended. _Now, time to put this VI out of commission. _He knew he couldn't leave Tali's side out of fear of the drones killing her, but he knew he could get a good shot at the reactor.

Noticing a main power module just next to the reactor, he raised his weapon and fired a steady stream of bullets into it, firing enough to cause the module to explode in a flurry of bangs. Without so much as a hint, the VI suddenly stopped talking and went silent. He had either caused it to retreat or he had defeated it.

After a minute of silence, the drones followed its VI creator and fell to the ground dead, confirming Marcus' suspicions. Rising up, he holstered his rifle and moved to pick Tali up. Just as he went to though, Tali's eyes fluttered open and she immediately jumped at the sight of Shepard being so close to her.

"What happened? I-" then she remembered the suit breach, "Ancestors! I have a suit breach! Keelah, I need to seal it before-" Before she could finish, Marcus had picked her up in his arms and began carrying her towards the elevator, causing her to blush immensely and shut up. Ashley and especially Liara just looked absolutely shocked by the movement and Garrus and Kaidan looked bemused. Wrex didn't care.

Following behind the spectre, Marcus smiled and responded, "Don't worry, I sealed the wound with some skin weave from my armor. It won't be permanent, Doctor Chakwas will have to give you a replacement suit part as a permanent feature." Tali just looked shocked. _He...saved me? And now he's carrying me..._Tali had allowed a image of him kissing her to enter her mind and it caused a smile to creep onto her face, but she immediately kicked it out as fast as she could.

_No, he simply saved a friend of his. Full stop. Don't ever think of that again! Although he does have a great ass...ENOUGH! _Tali was glad that that internal argument had been one noone could hear. Anyone who had heard it would think she's insane.

As she looked back up at Marcus she managed to mutter a 'Thank you' before looking at the wall of the elevator as they entered it.

_Yeah, really wish I had taken the chance I was given._

* * *

_July 4, 2183_

_1523 hours. _

_Perimeter Ground Communications, Eastern Perimeter, Geth Fortress, Virmire. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_First Sergeant Manos Avot._

Great. Sneaking into a geth fortress with just a squad of STG operatives who had no experience in fighting the damn things. Not to mention it was a squad of salarians against a well armed army of geth. _Two Divisions! Suicidal odds! _Yet here he was, scouting out that fortress, risking his life in the name of recon. Wonderful, wouldn't that look fantastic on his resume. Manos Avot, died in the line of duty. Sacrificed his life to gain intel on Saren's pet varren. Yeah, right.

"Pako, move up, stay low, scout out that communications dish, but don't get spotted. Yazu, Wilsi; move up and scout the airfield, give me an exact count of the amount of aircraft in their arsenal. The rest of you, follow behind me, we'll scout out the labs, see what we find." Manos ordered in the usual salarian rapidfire tone as his team moved out to execute their assigned tasks.

The pitter patter of salarian feet moving through the slowly moving water of the Virmiran landscape was all that could be heard as the well-trained salarian veterans moved through the canyon, scouting out geth installations and relaying information on defenses and strategic advantages back to the camp. They were under tight-knit radio communications, which couldn't be hacked. Geth were an unknown variable, but Kirrahe was positive it would work and they had trusted him.

It hadn't been long before the rest of his squad linked back up with the bulk of his unit and they pushed forward into the main installation. Geth patrols were more frequent as they continued and it wasn't long before krogan patrols were encountered as well, followed by the occasional asari commando. The place was a beehive of activity, but salarians were experts at espionage. They would find a way in without detection.

That they did. Avoiding the numerous geth recon and assault drones that were patrolling the main labs had been difficult, but once achieved they had found themselves inside. The place was massive, with a maze of corridors and rooms that could have served any number of purposes. There were store rooms, geth server rooms, sleeping quarters, test labs, prison cells, the lot. This place was built for war. Fortress didn't even cut it.

It wasn't long before they reached the northern side of the eastern perimeter and had made a distance of half a kilometer across the base. In that space of time they had found two airfields, a shipyard with one docked geth cruiser and two patrolling interceptors, along with at least two planetary cannons. Before passing, they had sabotaged to make sure they wouldn't be any trouble to the fleet.

The transmission they had released just before entering the fortress had gotten through just before being jammed by the geth jamming towers. But as long as the transmission had gotten out, they knew reinforcements would be inbound in a week by the maximum. They just had to hold out till then.

Just as they moved to cross the threshold seperating them from the breeding facility, Manos raised his hand and motioned for them to take cover. He took joined them just as the forms of six geth primes came into view, flanked by at least a platoon of geth shock troopers and four juggernauts. A legion. The geth prime seemed to scan the area with its optics until it was satisfied and the unit continued on, the squad releasing their breath.

Once he was sure the enemy had been distanced enough to avoid, Manos continued into the breeding facility. He was nearing the western perimeter now and once he and his men had scouted out the breeding facility, he would link up with Imness and his team and bug out. _Almost done. Nothing can go wrong. I hope._

He noticed that eery silence in the fortress as he moved through it and he had a feeling his unit did as well. They all felt it. Something wasn't quite right about this place. Nothing was as it seemed. Something was very wrong here. Just as he crossed the next blast door and entered the second shipyard in a row, he let his jaw gape at the sight of the warship docked with it.

The geth flagship; it even looked exactly like it did in the reports. It was MASSIVE. Two kilometers long was right, this thing dwarfed even the turian's biggest dreadnoughts. Even a carrier couldn't compare to this, and they were bigger than any dreadnought manufactured. It was a marvel of engineering. _How could the geth design a ship like this?_

Then he jumped back into reality. Looking around frantically, he saw nothing. _Ganto, where the hell is he? He should be here by now! _Silently, Manos accessed his comm and whispered Ganto's name but before he could even mutter anything else, a loud, synthetic horn sound pierced the air and caused them to reel back and covered their ears.

Looking up, he saw that it had come from the geth flagship; one of its colossal legs moving up and slamming into the ground next to them, causing them to fly into the ground as it raised its leg back up and rested it back. Its voice pierced his mind. _Wait, it can TALK? The geth inside that ship are talking into my mind? _

**YOU ARE MINE, FEEABLE SALARIANS. YOU THINK I DID NOT KNOW OF YOUR INTRUSION? THIS IS MY SANCTUARY. YOUR INFILTRATION IS USELESS. WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOUR ARRIVAL.**

Manos looked back up to see Saren descending on a hoverpad sort of object while geth, krogan and asari troops pressed in from all sides. Asari? Traitors. All of them. Manos to move, but the geth's voice was too much for him to bear as he fell back onto the ground in pain. Looking around, he saw his squad members had already passed out from the pain. He was the only one left. He immedately sent a distress signal to Kirrahe before passing out. All he could remember was Saren's words.

"You will join us in survival. Sovereign holds the key to your salvation salarian."

"It only asks for your servitude in return."

* * *

_July 4, 2183_

_2000 hours. _

_Military Commune, Palaven Command, Spire of Talos, Palaven._

_Eden Prime War._

_Primarch Barcus Fedorian, Metarch Ulma Fedorian, ArchGeneral Adrien Victus, Gunnery Sergeant Tarquin Victus, Ritquin Victus, Didact Irix Coronati, Hierarch Thotous Vakarian._

The turian hierarchy military's finest commanders stood in earnest all around the room, all discussing the current crisis. The war with the geth. Councilor Sparatus was poised to defend the Apien Crest's borders and turian space, especially Taetrus after the Vallum Blast just six years ago. It wasn't movement on the scale of the Rachni Wars or the krogan rebellions, or even during the morning war, but there was definitely movement. Primarch and Metarch Fedorian were swift to agree.

Didact Irix Coronati, supreme commander of the turian navy and ArchGeneral Adrien Victus, total commander of the hierarchy's army stood in the middle of the room, awaiting the Fedorian decision. Victus shot a look to his wife, Ritquin and his son, Tarquin and smiled. His wife smiled back as they stood at attention at the side of the hall. The Victus family were military, to the last.

Thotous Vakarian, an ex-C-Sec veteran officer and a close friend of the Primarch, sat next to the man on the main pedestals, the man now being a politician and one of the six hierarchs that co-governed turian society. Listening closely, he waited for the assembly to start; and when it did, Barcus took his chance to stand up.

"My fellow warriors, we stand in a time of crisis," Fedorian dictated, "The geth press down on us and we are forced to respond. Saren dares to attack his own people, his own homeworld. We shall show him the consequences of those actions in earnest. Councilor Sparatus of the Citadel Council has petitioned for the full mobilization of the turian military to protect our borders from this threat."

"It is by my decision, and that of the senate, that this petition be confirmed," He turned to Adrien and Irix at the same time, looking them both in the eyes, "Both of you will mobilize what resources you have and prepare for war. Do you have any proposals for how we respond to this?"

Irix was the first to respond. The man was naval genius, one of the hierarchy's finest and had battled the human admiral Joseph Garrong himself. It had been a glorious battle he had heard. It had been the battle that the turian hierarchy won and ended the First Contact War.

"I propose that we have our fleets spread out to cover all systems. A carrier task group should be ready to defend each of our systems. I'm aware that we have a nessacary amount of carriers and dreadnoughts to account for all possibilities. I can have the full might of the turian navy read to move on your order Primarch." Irix stated proudly.

"Excellent, we have the utmost confidence in your abilities Irix," Barcus stated, turning towards Adrien, "And what of your troops?"

"I can have a total of four divisions assigned to all major colonies and two on minor colonies. If backup is required, the navy can provide air support," Adrien stated but blocked out any argument from Irix by continuing, "I'm aware that that kind of support might not be available during a space engagement, but we simply don't have the troops to have a field army deployed on each colony. Four divisions is the best I can give you."

"It is good enough. Irix," Barcus concluded, "Assemble a meeting with the admirals and inform them of your plans. Adrien," He turned to Victus, "Assemble a meeting with your generals. Inform them of your plans. This meeting of the congregate is adjourned." With a formal turian salute; which is two crossed arms slapped across their chest followed by a bow, the meeting members began to break up.

Irix and Adrien glared daggers at each other as they passed and Adrien approached Ritquin and his son. Once there, Ritquin addressed him.

"Tarquin's going back to join his unit and I think I'm going to go back home to look after the child," Ritquin declared, the couple looking at the woman's chest. She had been pregnant for a couple of months now and was due to give birth in just two weeks. Adrien smiled as he put a hand on their shoulders pulling them in and hugging them.

"I'll make sure we all come back from this to celebrate the new member to our family. Have you decided on a name yet? I can't come up with a name." Adrien pondered.

"How about Garrus?" Ritquin asked and Adrien laughed as he heard it. How the man would react to a kid being named after him. He always liked Garrus, it was just Thotous that annoyed him. The man was too strict with the kid. Too turian. But Garrus? He was the thing all turians weren't. He liked it.

"Sounds good. Listen, I've got to go but I'll make sure I'm home by tonight. Maybe we'll go out for dinner? I know a good resturant in Talos that we can go to." Adrien suggested, releasing the embrace. They all knew turian duty came first, but it didn't mean they liked it.

"Sounds great. I can't wait for tonight." Tarquin smiled and he quickly saluted Adrien, moving down the hallway and ordering the turian honor guard to follow behind him. Adrien smiled at him. _My son. He's grown up alot from being that annoying brat. I'm so proud of him. _Turning to Ritquin, his smile grew. And how much he loved her.

"Spirits know I love you, Ritquin," Adrien stated and the two of them gently leaned their foreheads against each other, looking into each other's eyes, "Somedays I look forward to the time when I can just retire. But everytime I try to, they persuade me to stay."

"I love you too, Adrien and don't worry. The time will come for retirement." Ritquin stated, breaking the bond. Turians couldn't kiss as they didn't have lips, so their equivalent was to gently bump foreheads. It was one of the many ways turians could show affection.

"Easy for you to say. You retired like, what? Ten years ago?" With a final laugh, he marched down the hallway, the imperialistic hallways reminding him so much of what the human 'roman's' buildings looked like. Creepy how they and the turians shared so many similiarities.

* * *

**"So that was his first display of active affection?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Certainly was, and that was where it all went uphill for them. It wouldn't be long before Shepard finally ripped his head out of his ass and told her his feelings."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"So what happened after that? Did they assault Virmire?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"You're jumping ahead. No, they still had one more errand to run for one of our crew. But first, a visit to the Citadel was in hand. I think that's where Shepard finally did it."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Did what? He proposed?" **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Yeah, he...wait what? NO! No no no! Who the hell proposes to someone you've only JUST fallen in love with? Is the new world that bad? Damn. No, you have to hear it to believe it."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

* * *

**Batarians: A spacefaring race of humanoids originating from their homeworld of Khar'Shan. Batarians are barbaric, sadistic, warrior-sentients who bring conflict wherever they go. They have a inbred hatred of humanity and are mostly solitary and have mostly remained in the Kite's Nest, while occassionally coming out. Their economy is technically bankrupt and their military broken. The batarians were once proud, but that age has long since ended. They are dextro-based. They are technically a Citadel race, despite losing their embassy.**

**Didact - Supreme Commander of the Turian Navy. **

**ArchGeneral - Supreme Commander of the Turian Army, Marine Corps and Army Rangers.**

**Primarch - Male Leader of the Turian Hierarchy.**

**Metarch - Female Leader of the Turian Hierarchy.**

**Hierarchs - Co-leader of the turian hierarchy. Operates exactly like the US congress, though slightly different.**

**Talos - A renowned turian spirit. He is known for assisting Ulac Timi in reaching the stars and meeting the asari. **


	25. Chapter 20 Old Feelings Reignite

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY:**

**OLD FEELINGS REIGNITE**

_July 5, 2183_

_1804 hours. _

_Dark Star Lounge, Level 28, Zakera Wards, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Pressly._

Marcus smiled as he talked with his friends and sipped his drink, wearing just a shirt and pants and feeling good not to be stuck in his combat armor. This was the second shore leave his team had had since the war began and it had been one well earned. Surviving Noveria and stopping asteriod X57 had taken a toll on them and they needed the rest. Maybe not Wrex so much, but the rest of them did.

The place was a nice change from Flux on Shalta Wards. The room was illuminated by multi-colored, flashing lights that originated from the dance floor at the back of the room. The male and female restrooms were located to the right of this while a bar sat, smack in the middle, of the room, turian and hanar bartenders serving drinks and snacks. Tables littered the front of the room while pounding music beat through the room.

Asari, turians, hanar, elcor and almost every other citadel race was on the dance floor, their bodies either attempting to dance or, in the asari's case, flowing with the music. Marcus was a terrible dancer; his mother had said he made sixth graders look like michael jackson. She was just joking around, but inside Marcus knew it was true. He couldn't dance to save his life.

During the entirety of the conversations, Marcus had mostly watched or conversed with Tali, feeling his feelings coming back to the surface. _Should I sneak off with her and try one more time? I mean, should I even be thinking of trying again after her reaction the first time? _Marcus sighed as he looked at her one more time and then turned to talk with Pressly. _Maybe later, but I definitely will while we're on the Citadel._

"So, enjoying shore leave, Pressly?" Marcus asked as he turned towards the man. Pressly looked as if he was being tortured; he sat looking blankly at a wall while occassionally taking a sip of his cruiser. After realizing that Marcus was talking to him, Pressly turned around and was able to form a fake looking smile.

"Trying. I'm old Shepard and shore leave is more of a pain then it is for others." Pressly stated and Marcus raised an eyebrow.

"A pain? Shore leave...irritates you?" Marcus asked, thoroughly confused. _Who in there right mind finds shore leave irritating? _

"Work helps me concentrate, to feel useful," Pressly declared, "Taking it away, and you've got shore leave. Pure boredom for me. My place is on the normandy, as its navigator." Finishing his sentence, Pressly takes another sip of his cruiser.

"Normandy's not going anywhere, Pressly. Just take the time to rest and relax. We've only got two days to spend here and then we'll be heading out again, depending on what the Council gives us or what I decide we should investigate. Hell, I think it's high time we started searching directly for Saren's main base of operations." Marcus stated, taking a sip of his own drink.

"Perseus. Has to be. It makes sense to put his base on Rannoch where it is, quite literally, untouchable," Pressly stated, "I mean, who the helll would think of taking on a entire battle fleet of geth? Not even the turians are that crazy, and they're the military masters. Who would be crazy enough to do that?"

The answer came out of Marcus' mouth before he could stop them, "The quarians. They've made it clear they really want their homeworld back and a galactic war with the geth would be an ample oppurtunity for them to take advantage of." Marcus explained.

"But even then they're not that crazy," Pressly countered, "That's fifty thousand obsolete vessels, which only a quarter of are even armed, against a fleet of state-of-the-art, lethal, high-tech geth fleets of how many ships? An alliance probe sent in there yesterday detected well over thirty thousand ships, and ninty-nine of those were battleships. Battleships!" Pressly exclaimed and Marcus conceded to his point. Battleships were one of the most powerful classes of warship to exist, eclipsed only by dreadnoughts and carriers.

All talk between them was interrupted when Garrus stood up all of a sudden and pulled on Tali's arm, trying to take her to the dance floor. She resisted and Garrus slurred his responses; the turian was clearly drunk.

"Come on, Talsssssss, come...dannnccceeeeee...with meh." Garrus slurred, his grip tightening on her arm but it was clear she wasn't moving. Liara suddenly stood up and offered to dance with Garrus, but he immediately held his hand up to object.

"Nah! We dextras, _dextros..._must stick togetha!" Garrus stated, slurring his last line and then returning to pulling Tali's arm. The quarian still wasn't moving, she looked like a wreck. She was fumbling with her finger nervously. It was obvious that she was embarassed about dancing.

"Go on runt, just dance with him," Wrex added, "The turian ain't going to give up, especially since he's drunk."

Tali's response was immediate, "But I-I-I don't...Well I know how to-dance but I-Keelah..." Tali stuttered and put a hand over her mask, before finally yanking her arm out of Garrus' strong grasp. Just that movement alone caused Garrus to stumble into the counter and Kaidan leapt up to help him up.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to knock him over!" Tali shouted as she looked at the fallen turian, but Kaidan simply smiled at the quarian as he lifted Garrus up, moving towards the doorway.

"Don't fret Tali, he's drunk and everyone does moronic things when they're drunk." Kaidan explained and just as they were heading out, a human man looked at Tali and scoffed, "Suit-rat vermin." He then spat on the ground, causing Garrus to look at him and jab a talon into his chest.

"You are...racissssssttttt...and meh don't like racists. _They're bad people..._and silllyyyyyy." Garrus slurred one final time as Kaidan chuckled and left, leaving the door to close behind him. The man looked absolutely shocked and looked to Shepard for help.

"Don't look at me, you won't get help over here. Just consider it a lesson learned. Now go piss off and annoy someone else. I have less tolerance for it." Marcus declared and the man simply walked off with a tantrum in his step. Racists these days, a breed that refuses to die off.

Shaking his head, he turns towards Ashley and is about to enter conversation with him when he hears a male voice, human by the sound of it, infront of him. The voice was definitely excited as he spoke.

"Are you THE Commander Shepard?" The voice stated and when Marcus looked around the benches to see him, he sighed and rolled his eyes, trying to melt into the background. Heading straight for him was a male human, with a white goatee and blue eyes, backed by blondish hair. This was Conrad Verner, a human with an extreme obsession with one man; me.

"Um...who the hell is this?" Ashley asked as she looked at the man. He didn't even stop to notice her as he wizzed past and held out his hand for Marcus to shake. Reluctantly, he took it, groaned inwardly, and shook his hand, nodding to confirm the man's suspicions. The jump the man gave at his acknowledgement just made him look for more exit routes.

"I met you on Arcturus after the attack on Elysium! I have a replica of the very assault rifle you used in that battle!" Conrad stated with pride, smiling as Marcus tried his best to put on a fake smile. He had first met this hellbringer when they met on Arcturus. It had indeed been after Elysium and he had disguised himself as a reporter to see him. Dear god was those two hours a torture.

"Oh...do you. That's...charming." Marcus stated. _If only a little bit creepy. _The two men continued to stand there in awkward silence; Conrad absently, Marcus with a posture of 'help me' radiating out to his group. He didn't hate Conrad, but he was kinda one of those fans you grew to get irritated by.

Finally, after what felt like six minutes, Conrad spoke up, "Can you sign my shirt?" He said excitedly and Marcus widened his eyes in shock. _He wants me to..._but suddenly, the man holds up a shirt of Elysium and he lets out a quiet sigh of relief. Nodding, although reluctantly, Marcus takes the offered texture and signs the shirt, Conrad yelling in delight.

"Can I take a picture of you and me? My wife will love it!" Conrad squealed groaned mentally. He looked to his squad for help but they all just sat grinning at him and he gathered Tali, although he couldn't see it, was also smiling. Some help they were.

Turning to Conrad, knowing the man was expecting an answer, he said 'yes' and stood up to accompany Conrad to the back of the room. Standing next to him, he tried to force a smile but upon Ashley raising her omni-tool to take a photo, he smiled even wider at the fact that she was making an unusual face. _Trying to make me smile, are you? _

A single, white flash later and the photo was taken, Ashley uploading it to Conrad's omni-tool before sitting back down and deactivating hers. Marcus moved to sit down, but apparently Conrad wasn't quite done yet.

"Commander Shepard, could you make me a spectre?" Conrad asked.

Marcus was halfway through his drink when he heard the question and he had to swallow it to stop him from spitting it out. Turning towards the man, he couldn't help the shock that showed in his voice.

"Spectre? YOU want to be a spectre?" Marcus asked rather rudely and was about to apologize for the blunt question, but apparently Conrad hadn't taken notice.

"I want to be just like you!" Conrad exclaimed, "Killing geth, saving damsels in distress..." The last bit caused Liara, Ashley and presumably Tali to roll their eyes as they sipped their own drinks and continued listening in. He swore he also heard Tali 'destroy geth, not kill. Not alive, definitely not alive...' He smiled at that, "...and kill other rogue spectres. I want to be a hero, just like you!" Conrad finished and Marcus had barely been listening, mostly trying to find a convincing way to tell Conrad to stop.

"Conrad, I'm not making you a spectre," Marcus began and noticing Conrad's face turn sad and begin to object, he held up his hand to stall him, "Even if I wanted to, I can't. You can't just sign up as a spectre like you do in the military Verner, you have to have actual military experience and handpicked by the Council. I got picked for human convenience and due to my service, not because I signed up."

"But I want to be a hero, fighting crime and the geth with you," Conrad said sadly and then looked up with a smile on his face, "Maybe I could join your crew, fight alongside you and your squad!" Before Marcus to respond to that, he heard Wrex snort.

"No, Conrad. One, you're not Alliance military and you have no combat experience," Marcus stated, "Two, you have no idea what kind of enemy we're fighting. This isn't batarians Verner, these are emotionless machines who show no mercy, no fear and no surrender. They fight until they are destroyed."

"Three, you can be a hero without fighting on the frontlines with us," Marcus stated, an idea forming in his mind, "Go home to your wife, hold her close because you're on a mission. Go out there, raise charity, do what you can to supply the war effort. You'll be more of a hero then you'd expect," With some reluctance, he added the final bit that he knew would get Conrad convinced, "I'd be very honored if you would do that."

His face practically beaming, he shook Marcus' hand estatically, "Thank you, oh thank you! I'll get right to it! I was honored to meet you, Commander!" Without so much as look back, Conrad left the lounge and began his quest to impress the commander. With a final sigh, he turned to his group to see them all laughing; even Wrex was chuckling a little.

"What? What's so funny?" Marcus asked innocently.

"The look on your face...was...price...less..." Ashley tried to say through her laughing and Tali added her own words.

"You looked like my mother whenever I asked her for something." Tali stated with a snicker and Marcus just rolled his eyes at the group, taking a final sip of his drink, "Very funny guys."

The rest of the time in the lounge was spent dancing, engaging in conversations, drinks and food. When a few more hours had passed, the squad had decided to do some shopping around the Zakera Ward. Ashley stated she wanted to look at the new armor configurations and Wrex had joined her, while Liara went to look at the new omni-tools on sale. Kaidan had returned and just decided to stay in the lounge for a while.

Marcus had been on his way towards Saronis Applications to look at medi-gel upgrades when Tali joined him.

"Hey, Shepard." Tali greeted as she joined Marcus outside the store and entered.

Marcus turned towards her with a smile, "I thought you'd be with Liara."

"Same here, but I guess I got bored. We've all got the latest model anyway so I'd say it'd be pretty pointless to look at omni-tools. So I just decided to join you." Tali stated and then realized how she sounded and fixed up her wording of the sentence, "I mean, I just thought there might be somethings you'd be interested in that I am..." _Ancestors, that doesn't sound right either you bosh'tet!_

"Whoa, slow down Tali, I got what you meant. Come on, lets take a look at...how about that model store? I heard they sell great models of quarian ships. Maybe...a Helisa'Kah-Class Heavy Cruiser model?" Marcus asked as he moved away from Saronis and towards the store named 'Gadron's Models and Antiques Store.'

"You're very informed on quarian ship classification, especially since that class of warship hasn't existed since our defeat at Rannoch three centuries ago." Tali stated, shocked by Marcus' knowledge.

"We learnt about it in military academy, used it as a example in class when they were teaching us about a heavy cruiser's weaknesses." Marcus stated.

"Seems fitting; we quarians were said to manufacture the best cruisers. The turians were experts in warfare and made fantastic dreadnoughts, the asari made great battleships and the salarians frigates, but we made the best cruisers. They could withstand a single shot from a dreadnought's main gun, even at point blank range."

"Damn, makes the Alliance's cruisers seem mediocre," Marcus stated but his face lit up as soon as he saw the model of what appeared to be an alliance Lincoln-Class Escort Carrier. The ship looked much like a two pronged fork with two sem-dishes on each side, presumably the carrier's aircraft hangars. Four, large engines, similiar to the Normandy's, but much bigger in scope, were located at the back. The bridge looked as if it might be at the top of the miniture spire at the center. The ship was in standard alliance colors; black and blue.

"That ship looks huge." Tali stated as she looked at it in awe. The carrier was approximately just a quarter smaller than a quarian liveship, and those were huge. Definitely smaller than a turian dreadnought, but big. "And what's an escort carrier?" Tali asked.

"Oh, human invention, none of the other races use it. We have many different types of carriers; Escort carriers, supercarriers, light and heavy carriers and then there's the orbital assault carriers. We had alot more but due to spaceflight, most were invalidated and were pretty much redundant. They all serve their intended purpose and I guess that's what makes them deadly killing machines."

"But carriers? In all quarian history, there's never been a class of warship called a 'carrier.'" Tali stated.

"That's because it was introduced into warfare by us humans during the First Contact War. They were the only thing that could counter the turian dreadnoughts, as ours back then might as well have been held together by rivets. In the end, our carriers bettered the turian dreadnoughts by far; just one managed to disable four of them."

"Judging by the name, I guess they carry important cargo?" Tali asked, confused at how a carrier could defeat four dreadnoughts, especially TURIAN dreadnoughts.

"Not cargo in that respect; they carry fighters, interceptors and bombers. Keeps them safe inside the ship until they can be launched. Carriers are mostly with escorts but they have tough armament, at least on supercarriers and heavy carriers and can launch hordes of fighters." Marcus explained, turning back to examine the carrier.

Tali also examined the models and her eyes immediately fell on the small model of an asari Nybaen-class destroyer. She liked the design; it was elegant as was expected of asari design, but deep inside, hidden beneath, were weapons ready to lash out and destroy the republics' enemies. Marcus' voice came from behind her, along with a snort.

"Destroyer? It looks like a woman's high heels if the top was closed, the strut at the back removed and wings added." Marcus joked, chuckling. Tali didn't know what high-heels were, but she was sure she didn't want to find out. The way Shepard said it made it sound bad. Turning towards Shepard, she smiled as they continued to look through the shop.

They looked at models of all kinds; elcor frigates, hanar corvettes, volus patrol vessels, quarian cruisers, turian dreadnoughts, human battleships, asari destroyers, the lot. Every class of warship was located in this shop. Marcus had eventually decided to buy a model of a quarian cruiser and they left the store. Once outside, Marcus put the bag in Tali's hands.

"Yours." Marcus declared.

Tali was quick to object, "I can't take this. I mean, it's nice and I like it, but you shouldn't waste credits on me..." Before she could even finish, Marcus had closed the gap and put a hand on her shoulder, "Tali, I bought it with you soley in mind. Its an image of your past and I want you to have it to take back to the fleet. Consider my gift to you."

"But I-" Tali began but was once more interrupted.

_Should I just come out with it? Honestly, I can't delay this forever. _

He looked at Tali's eyes and shook his head.

_No. I'll wait. Be patient, the time will come._

"Tali. I bought this for you. No more objections or I'll have to order you to keep it, and I'd rather not do that." Marcus stated with a smile and Tali gave a defeated sigh as she gave in. The both of them continued to walk along and looked at other shops. Many of the people gave Tali dirty looks and some even had the audacity to 'warn' Shepard there was a quarian behind him. They learnt quickly to back off and they continued.

It wasn't long before Tali decided she wanted to retire for the night and get some sleep. Marcus had finally decided now was a better time than never and asked if Tali would accompany him to one final location for the night. When the two of them were alone in an alleyway somewhere on Zakera Ward's Level 23, they began.

"Shepard, why did you bring me here? What's going on?" Tali asked, holding the bag with her stuff next to her. She noticed Marcus looked very nervous about something and tried to figure out what it was. Nothing. She had nothing.

"Tali, I...I just wanted to say..." Marcus asked but began stuttering.

"Wanted to say what? Shepard, what is it?" Tali pondered, annoyed that he wouldn't just come out with it. _I feel like I'm half asleep already. _She just wanted to get to her sleeper pod and fall asleep. Tomorrow was the last day of shore leave and she wanted to spend it well, Shepard had taught her to use it for rest, not work. Even as a quarian, she understood that well.

_Just do it. Stop delaying and come out with it. You're a goddamn hero for fucksake, if you can't take rejection then what are you doing here?_

Taking a deep breath, he let it out, "Tali, you remember that time when I was teaching you martial arts?" Marcus asked and Tali slowly nodded. Remembering that they had been doing that quite alot since, he corrected himself, "I mean the first one." That got Tali's attention; the quarian's posture froze and she lay the bag on the ground.

"Look, I remember and I know you've found someone else. Don't worry about me, I'm just here to do my duty and that's all. I won't get in the way." Tali stated before moving to pick up her bag, but Marcus' response caused her to freeze up.

"Yes but-wait, what? Someone else? Tali, who are you talking about?" Marcus asked and Tali felt her cheeks light up in fury. She didn't know why Liara's relationship with Shepard angered her this much. She could have returned to the fleet and easily have fallen in love with another male quarian. Why was losing Shepard so...infuriating?

"Don't play dumb! You found solace with Liara and I'm okay with it! You don't need to ask me if it's okay! Just do it! I'm just the quarian, afterall! The suit-rat!" Tali spat and she immediately felt ashamed of her outburst. _Stop acting like a foolish girl; what's wrong with you? He's just one man! You could have any man you want on the fleet, why are you so infatuated with this man!?_

"Liara? Tali, Liara and I are in no way shape or form in a relationship. We're friends, nothing more. Why are you acting like this?" Marcus stated and that just annoyed Tali more. _He's lying to you! You saw it, plain as day! Both of them...hugging! ...intimately! _

"Don't lie to me! I saw both of you hugging on Feros! I told you, just go to her and ignore me. I'm just an obstacle that you don't need!" _Forget why I'm infatuated, why is he? He's got Liara yet he's insistent in hiding it from me. Males. _

"Hugging? Feros...?" Then it dawned on him. _Tali must have seen Liara leap on me. Oh damn it..._Turning to look at her he did a gentle impersonation of a facepalm, "Tali, you misunderstand. Liara wasn't hugging me out of love; she hugged me out of...I don't know. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, but know this: I didn't initiate that hug. It was not my intention to be with her. She didn't grab my attention."

Surprised that her paranoia had been for nothing, but she asked silently, "Who did then..." _I know it's not me. It must be Ashley. They talk a lot and I notice how Ash acts around him. Makes sense; they are both human. I mean, why would you be attracted to a- _

"You did."

Those two words were all that was needed to snap Tali out of her own self-sympathy and look Shepard directly in the eyes. _He...wait...I...wha...I...keelah! He said what? _

"What...did you say?" Tali said, her voice shaky.

"You grabbed my attention Tali. I fell for you. When I met you, you were this scared kid like adult who only wanted somewhere to hide. But when you joined the Normandy, you were a confident, brave woman and showed me a side I never knew about. You didn't lash out at Ashley or Pressly for being racist to you, you just ignored them, carried on. I admired you. I don't know where it all started but...I felt a bond with you."

Tali was lost for words. Tears were useless to express the emotions that were pent up inside of her; her heart raced at a million miles per hour while her breathing felt nonexistent. Shepard had said the words she thought he'd never say. The quarian, the member of a race nobody cared about, had caught the attention, the _love,_ of the hero of Elysium. A person from the opposite side of her spectrum.

"I...I don't-I don't know what to say." Tali stated and she wasn't lying. Her thought had abandoned her as all she could think about was how this man, this seemingly invincible man, had just confessed that he loved her. The quarian engineer. She would have to think about this; for a relationship to happen between them would take time; time she was willing to take.

"Tali, I'm not going to force you to love me back. I just wanted you to know how I-" Marcus began but Tali cut him off. _He didn't know I loved him back!? Hmph...Males! So slow to figure out things! _

"Force me? Shepard, I feel the same way about you, I just didn't think you'd ever feel the same thing for...this." Tali punctuated her point by indicating her suit. Marcus took his chance to step closer to her, resting his hands on her shoulders. _Got to take this slow. Don't get hasty. _

"I don't look at the suit Tali, I look at the personality. To me, you are an amazing person. The things you've been through; losing your mother, your father neglecting you, the racism, seeing your friend die...yet you hang on," Marcus stated, "That is what drew me to you. But to think you reciprocated the same feelings...I'm a lucky man." Marcus stated.

"And I'm a lucky woman," Tali stated, thinking immediately about how his lips would taste on hers. _If I want to be with him, I want it to be real. No nerve-stim pro. No, I need to be removed of this suit, I need to be WITH him. Yes, I will find a way but first, I've got to come to terms with this...turn of events. _

"I...I need to think about this. There's lots to think about, but just so you know...," Tali then leaned in to answer, "I'm a very happy woman." With that, Tali picked up the bag, snuck past, shared a wave with him and then disappeared. Marcus just smiled as he watched her leave, thinking about how her lips would taste on his.

_Marcus Lee Shepard, you've found yourself a date. Now just to find a way not to fuck it up. _With that, Marcus left the alleyway and approached and ran up the stairs. Back to Saronis Applications.

* * *

_July 5, 2183_

_2121 hours. _

_Rodam Expeditions, Level 28, Zakera Wards, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Master Thief Kasumi Goto, Master Hacker Keiji Okuda._

"Come on, admit it. You know you found that fun." Kasumi teased as the two master thieves walked away from Rodam Expeditions, both under tactical cloak. Kasumi was desperately trying to suppress a giggle at Keiji's attempts to not laugh and it really wasn't going to work much longer. Soon, she would have him laughing.

"I guess I did...it's still naughty, though." Keiji responded with a grin and Kasumi knew she had failed. Keiji was a tough nut to crack and this time had been no different. The two japanese thieves continued down Level 28 of Zakera Ward when they saw a large group of what looked to be a krogan, three humans, a quarian and an asari leaving the Dark Star Lounge, all going in seperate directions. But Kasumi could recognize one of those humans from anywhere.

"That's Commander Shepard, Keiji!" Kasumi whispered in his ear and Keiji immediately looked at where she was pointing; a human with a short brown beard and jet black hair accompanied by a young quarian girl. Smiling, he turned towards her with a grin.

"What do you say we follow them and see what he gets up to when not fighting geth and rogue spectres?" Keiji suggested and Kasumi immediately grinned as she tugged at Keiji's arm, the two of them tagging behind the group; who unknowingly lead them to Saronis Applications and before long, a model shop.

The two of them watched as Shepard explained the name of the model to his quarian friend, apparently named Tali, and then followed them inside. Kasumi and Keiji even took a look at some of the models themselves.

"I like this model of an asari yacht. Very flashy," Kasumi pointed out, pointing directly at the miniture ship. It looked a flying horseshoe. What is with asari and those designs? Even their destroyers look like high-heels. The next thing you know, you'll see a cruiser that looks like a boot. Only their dreadnoughts didn't look like shoes, but more like a flying christian cross. Not that she was anti-religious; she herself was christian, but she still couldn't get over that.

Keiji took notice of the yacht and laughed, "It looks silly." He commented and Kasumi giggled with him as they continued to examine it. Before long, Kasumi snatched it out of the cradle and was about to fit it into her bag when Keiji's hand on her wrist stopped her.

"Put it back, Kasumi." He requested, his voice not demanding. Keiji's gentle tone always got to her. Didn't stop her from having fun with him though.

"You're no fun at all." Kasumi teased and stuck her tongue out at him before placing the yacht back, taking Keiji's hand as the two of them kept looking around the room. Eventually they followed Shepard and Tali out of the store and to many other stores around them and by this time Kasumi had noticed that Shepard was acting rather unusual around the quarian. Kinda like Keiji used to act around her...

Hours went by until they noticed Shepard pulling Tali into an alleyway and Kasumi decided to follow. The two of them listened in on the conversation and by the end, Kasumi was grinning like an idiot as he pulled at Keiji and they moved inside the asari resturant next door, Kasumi turning to face Keiji and smiling.

"So, the hero of Elysium has a quarian girlfriend. Who knew?" Kasumi said tauntingly and Keiji laughed with her. They had deactivated their tactical cloaks so as to not alert anyone and they just stood there, Keiji with his arms around her waist and Kasumi with her hood down, head resting against his.

It was at these times, Keiji smiled. Kasumi's black hood always covered her face, and therefore all he could see where two snippets of light to symbolize her eyes and her mouth, where a single red line lay painted vertically on her lower lip. With her hood down, he got a proper look at her features.

Kasumi had long silvery hair, not pure silver in color but close and with tell-tale signs of a blondish color. Her cheeks were red most of the time and were now with her eyes being a ocean blue, her smile always seeming to bring him peace. He could never get bored of looking at her twenty-year-old face and when Kasumi had thought his eyes had lingered enough, she kissed him deeply on the lips.

After a couple of minutes, they broke for breath and just continued looking at each other in silence. Kasumi had first met Keiji when she was running an errand to steal a painting. Keiji had beaten her to the punch and gotten it first but they later decided to work together and since then had been working for numerous clients.

And it hadn't been long before they fell in love.

Speaking softly so as not to break the moment, Kasumi spoke, "Let's go back to our apartment. I can make some _tonkatsu, _just for us, what do you say?" Kasumi asked and Keiji nodded as he broke the embrace they shared and took her hand in his. Before they left, Kasumi whispered into his ears.

"Then we have our next errand tomorrow. What ever shall we do tonight?" Kasumi said in a sultry voice and Keiji looked at her with a devious grin as they walked out and headed for the nearest taxi. Nearby stood one human woman, just watching the pair go.

"Status." Came a sinister, gruff voice from his communicator and the man immediately picked up her radio and keyed it so he could hear her.

"Chief Roe here sir. I found them. They're taking a cab to the 800 apartment blocks. Should I follow Mister Hock?" Roe really hated sneaking around like this. Why couldn't she just put a bullet in Okuda's head and snap Goto's head already? Why all the sneaking? If Hock wanted the greybox, he could simply have me forcefully remove it from his brain.

"No, place a tracking device on the cab but don't follow. I've got the ultimate trap for them but it'll have to wait for a couple of days. I'll be there to see to it myself." Hock stated before cutting the line. Roe nodded before raising her arm and summoning her drone from her omni-tool, activating its cloak and ordering it to follow the cab. Once it had, she spun around and headed back for the Eclipse HQ.

_So Hock is coming all the way from Bekenstein to deal with this, is he? Well, this should be interesting._

* * *

**"Interesting. So that's where it all changed for them both."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Sure is. Of course, shore leave wasn't going to last forever, and that's not nessacarily where the romance between them concluded. It's where it sprouted, but resoluted? Definitely not."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"And this errand Shepard had to run before receiving information on Virmire?" **

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Let's just say that Wrex had domestic problems."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Domestic? Of what kind?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"The armoured kind. Uh...no pun intended."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Good."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"When do I get to sleep anyway?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"When we reach Virmire."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Base Personnel. Secure from battlestations."**

**- Base AI**

**"Secure from battlestations? From what?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Nothing bad, just some small batarian fleet causing trouble."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Batarians?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Continue."**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

* * *

**Escort Carrier - Carriers that are half the length of a standard heavy carrier or 'fleet carrier', carries less aircraft and posseses little armor but strong shields. Escort carriers are extremely slow but were cheaper to produce than standard carriers. Escort Carriers are in heavy demand by the Alliance and there are currently four classes of escort carrier - Lincoln, Nimitz, Truman and Kennedy.**

**Supercarrier - Carriers that are much larger than heavy carriers and pack much more defensive firepower and medium armor and shields. They are significantly slower, but faster than an escort carrier and can carry more aircraft; mostly bombers. They are usually escorted by five or six cruisers, but have been known to be occassionally accompanied by a task force of two dreadnoughts. There is currently only one type of supercarrier and only six of those are in service, with another two under construction; the Charles de Gaulle Class and the six vessels are the Queen Elizabeth, Donnel Udina, Alan West, Winston Churchhill, Robert Chamberlain and Patrick Weekes. The two in construction are the Jason Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.**

**Light Carrier - Carriers that are bigger than escort carriers, have better speed and better shields, but low armor and not as many aircraft. Only one class of light carrier, the Volgorad-Class, is known to exist. **

**Heavy Carrier - A standard carrier by comparisons. Bigger than light and escort carriers, smaller than supercarriers, has heavy armor, shields and a ton of aircraft capacity, but low speed. Only two classes of this ship exist; Atlantis-Class and Hades-Class. Heavy carriers can also be converted into orbital assault vessels for orbital fighter insertion.**

* * *

And yes, the whole idea of carriers being a human idea and that one defeated four turian dreadnoughts is a direct reference to Full-Paragon's 'And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy'. It's a very interesting read and I recommend you go off and indulge in it.

;)


	26. Chapter 21 Old Traditions Die Hard

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:**

**OLD TRADITIONS DIE HARD**

_July 7, 2183_

_1415 hours._

_Cockpit, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Disembarking Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Pressly._

"Citadel Control, this is SSV Normandy. Requesting permission to disembark per Council order A09-666-423. Say confirm?" Joker requested as Marcus made sure the airlock was sealed and stepped onto the bridge. Pressly was sitting in the seat to Joker's right and was helping with navigation; not that Joker needed it, best pilot in the galaxy was no exaggeration.

It took some time for the control spokesperson to verify the data and Marcus just stood there, arms crossed, staring out the window. After a short meeting with the Council, he had discovered that they had no new data for him and therefore no new leads. Possibly to his detriment, Marcus decided he would chase down any anonymous leads he could find. Possibly even try and use the Normandy's stealth drives to sneak inside the Perseus Veil itself.

Mere seconds later, the hanar on the other line responded, "Normandy, this is Citadel Control, you're clear to depart. Disembark on vector 1.45, 00.5, 772. Turn 350 degrees starboard and head on it. Citadel Control, out." The hanar on the line then cut the comm, allowing Joker to perform his piloting skills. Departing the Citadel slowly, the Normandy backed out and then Joker punched in the coordinates stated by the hanar, watching the Normandy glide out of the dock and shoot out into the Widow System.

The vibrant purple colors of the Serpent Nebula greeted them as the Normandy glided through the citadel fleet, narrowing missing the Destiny Ascension as they headed for the relay, leaving the Citadel behind them. Marcus smiled as he patted Joker's chair and Pressly, now no longer needed, got up and reassumed his post in the CIC, moving down the flight deck.

"Destination, commander?" Joker asked as he looked up at him. They had entered the relay and exited out at the Sol relay. Pluto loomed below them as the Normandy flew past one of the numerous geosynchronous defense platforms orbitting the dwarf planet. The Alliance interceptors and frigates circling the planet were life a herd of buffalo moving in formation, circling it like defensive bee soldiers. Marcus could also make out an alliance Colorado-Class battleship spearheading the formation; its vast array of weaponry visible for all to see.

Thinking it through, Marcus finally made a decision. He knew it was unavoidable. It was time to scout out the Perseus Veil.

"Take us to the Jali'skah relay, Joker." Marcus ordered as he stood up straighter. Joker widened his eyes as he looked at the coordinates more closely. He had to be joking, he had to be. Seeing that the coordinates did indeed lead to where he thought they did, Joker looked back up at Marcus with a shocked expression.

"That relay is in the Jali'skah system, the Hades Lair cluster," Joker stated, "That relay's use is illegalized by the Citadel conventions for a reason, Shepard."

Marcus smiled as he looked down at Joker, "We have a stealth drive Joker, they'll never know we used it," Marcus stated, "We need to get inside the Perseus Veil and find out what Saren is up to and scout out the systems. Tell Tali I want her ready. We're going to Rannoch. Just don't tell where we're going, I want it to be a surprise." Marcus stated and before Joker could object any further, he turned and left, walking down the flight deck.

Joker just watched as he left and then turned back to his console, his voice screaming in his head. _Great Jeff, you're going directly into the heart of the synthetic mass-murderers! The fucking Perseus! Damn it, sometimes I wonder if Shepard is goddamn crazy. _Joker took one last look at the now empty flight deck and then turned back to his console, opening his omni-tool and deciding to play the theme song to Galaxy of Fantasy, his favourite game. He then set a course for a long ride towards the Jali'skah system. _All the way on the otherside of the galaxy. Fucking fantastic._

Meanwhile, as Joker was listening to his music, Marcus walked down the stairs and almost bumped into Kaidan as he was moving.

"Sorry Shepard, was just going to see Pressly. Is there something going on?" Kaidan asked as he stopped at the top of the stairs, waiting for Marcus' answer.

"None. Carry on Staff Lieutenant." Marcus stated and Kaidan nodded as he hit the panel and stepped through, doors closing behind him as Marcus continued his steady pace down the steps. Once he was on the Crew Deck, Marcus immediately moved around and entered the mess hall, picking up a couple of ration bars as he went. He had considered joining everyone to eat in the mess hall, but in the end he had decided he had work to do and approached his cabin, hitting the panel to enter.

Once the door was open, Marcus stepped inside and closed the door, dropping his ration bars on his desk and bringing up his terminal. Once he had gotten a change of clothes, Marcus sat down at his terminal and began thinking of what to do. Pulling up a recent turian sighting of geth ships assembling near Sentry Omega, he begins his research.

**{Loading...}**

_July 7, 2183_

_1427 hours._

_Engineering, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound towards Jali'Skah System, Hades Lair Cluster._

_Eden Prime War._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Chief Engineer Gregory Adams, Petty Officer Second Class Frederick Deve Johnson._

"So then basically, what he does right, he whips out his omni-tool and actually fries the bloody panel! So I told him he was an idiot and he was like-" Johnson explained his story to Tali. Apparently Fred had originally been a serviceman on the SSV Somme and had helped his crew retake the ship from batarian terrorists posing as alliance inspectors on a outdated alliance Kursk-class light frigate which were now replaced with the newer Warsaw-Class light frigates. Adams' interruption stopped that though.

"Go tell your stories to someone else, Johnson! Miss Zorah is trying to work and you're not helping!" Adams declared as he came from Tali's right, causing the quarian's attention to be drawn to him. Tali was grateful to him; she had been trying to realign the starboard thruster cuplings but Johnson's perputual stories always distracted her. Now she was really behind and only had one hour till the end of her shift.

Johnson, acting offended, scoffed at Adams, "You bullshitting Adams? Tali doesn't find my stories distracting, do you ma'am?"

Tali suddenly felt two pairs of eyes on her; Johnson wanting her to back him while Adams wanted her confirmation on being distracted so he could kick Johnson out on his ass. It didn't take long for Tali to make a decision as she turned to Johnson.

"Your stories are very interesting but I really must work. Maybe when the shift is over we can meet in the mess hall and you can tell me all about it?" Tali suggested and Johnson, seeming satisfied, snapped a salute, "Sounds good to me ma'am."

Adams simply chuckled, "Now get out of here before I use my authority as Chief engineer to kick your ass into Shepard's quarters." With that, Johnson swivelled around and left, leaving Adams and Tali to do their work.

"Continue, Zorah." Adams ordered in a gentle tone and turned back around to reassume his post, Tali nodding at his leave as she turned back to her console to continue her mundane work. She also thought of what Shepard had said back on the Citadel. '_You grabbed my attention Tali. I fell for you.' _Tali had felt butterflies in her stomach when she had heard that. It was like her greatest dream coming true. _But did he really-no,he meant it! No more foolish denials girl, he wants you and you know it._

_But how could I be with him? I have to find a way out of this. I will have to buy antibiotics and herbal supplements if my immune system is to survive contact with him. Then I'll have to find a clean room...no, that won't be possible unless we go to the fleet and use one there. No, we should do this in his home. I have to find a way out of this suit. I want to be with him, I need to be free of this damn thing. Yes, I NEED to be with him._

Tali then hit the release button on her terminal and watched as one of the vents opened up to omit her passage. Leaning down, Tali moved in, head first, into the small vent and activated her omni-tool to give her light and regulate her body temp; the closer she got to the engine core, the hotter it would be in the vents. Lucky she had a suit; she could regulate her temperture at the touch of a button on her omni-tool.

Orange light illuminated the vents as her omni-tool cast a low glow on it, but once its flashlight kicked in, everything was much clearer. Once she had managed to slip her legs inside she began crawling down the vent towards the couplings. She continued her thoughts.

_I still can't believe he chose me. Me. He could have had Liara, or Ashley, or even any other female alliance crew. He could have even had...any male members...Keelah! How can you even think something that! Straight, definitely straight! _Tali banged the back of her helmet against the ceiling as she grunted but continued, "Keelah, I hate vents."

_Any of them could have been his but he chose me. The quarian; trapped in a suit and he can't even see my face, yet he chose me. My people have to use antibiotics and medicine just to allow us the ability to kiss let alone have...intercourse. Ancestors, you're thinking too fast! You've barely started a working relationship and already you're thinking of sex? Have some sense woman! This isn't teenage fantasy, this is a REAL relationship and I'm not stuffing it up!_

_What does he think of me when he sees me? Would he prefer me in a suit? Would he find me...pretty? _That caused Tali to stop crawling for a minute, once again banging her head. _I've been thinking so much about getting out of this suit that I haven't even bothered to think about what he'd...like in my looks. Am I attractive by human standards or am I...ugly? Too many questions! I won't know until I show him my face. But do I trust him, love him, that much? Am I really that much in love with him that I'm willing to engage in such intimacy?_

Tali just thought that through for a second before formulating an answer and continuing down the vent.

_No, I don't. But I will. _

_But am I being selfish in wanting this? What of the fleet? What would Shala or Gerrel or...father, say about this? Would Rael be ashamed of me for having a human boyfriend? _Tali stopped thinking that for a second as she smiled at that. _Boyfriend. Boy. Friend. Boyfriend. Human. Boy. Friend. _"Boyfriend. MY boyfriend." _Yes, that sounds SO good. Especially the human bit. And who cares about what father thinks? I can just rub it in his face and tell him to go to the ancestors. He's never cared about me so he won't start now._

It wasn't long before Tali found herself at the exact coupling she was looking for. Bringing her omni-tool out infront of her, Tali begins running scans of the coupling and running diagnostic programs. Letting them run their course, she continues her musings. _What do I tell him? That I want him more than anything? Keelah, I want him so much but...am I being selfish? Am I letting him shove away his happiness just so he can chase me? _Tali had to stop to think about that. She would discuss this with Shepard after her shift. _I don't even know his first name._

Before Tali could continue her diagnostics however, she swore she heard a scuttling sound from behind her and twisted her head to see what it was. When she saw it, Tali's body completely froze. There, looking straight at her, was the ugliest beast she had ever seen. It was covered in brown hair and had eight legs, four on each side, followed by six eyes that seemingly looked into her soul. Pincers moved inward and outward and it made a low hissing sound. The thing was the size of a dinner plate.

Spider.

Tali wanted to scream but she held her breath. She instead yelped and keyed her comm to Adams. His voice soothed her thoughts.

"Yes, Tali? That coupling is still showing distabilizations. Something wrong?" Adams responded. Tali gulped as she answered in a low whisper.

"There's a spider...four meters...away from me...looking at me..." Tali just kept looking at the hideous creature. She felt sweat pore down her as her suit's collection units got to work getting rid of it. Tali once had dreams of geth killing her in her sleep. She never thought anything would be more scary. Now she swore she was looking into the eyes of turian evil spirit.

"It's just a spider Tali..." Adams stated with a sigh, rolling his eyes at the woman's reaction.

"I HATE SPIDERS!" Tali yelled and that got the spider's attention. It leapt onto her and landed on her chest. She screamed as she batted it with the side of her arm and started spamming her overload program at it before activating Chiktika. Chiktika appeared in a flash and fired a single incendiary round at the arachnid. The round hit home as the spider burst into flames, leaving a scorched, dead body. Calling her drone back, Tali allowed her breathing to slow down.

"Tali? What happened?" Adams asked through the comm, worry in his voice.

Finally calming down, Tali answered, "It jumped on me. Chiktika killed it. I'll check if the diagnostics are finished." Tali stated and cut the comm. _How embarassing. But how did such a creature get on the Normandy? We're in space, away from the human homeworld! It can't be here! And just how many more are there..._

It didn't take long for Tali to finish what was left of the diagnostics and she soon found herself back in engineering with Adams fast approaching her.

"That coupling just came back online and reads as fully repaired. Nice job." Adams applauded and patted Tali on the shoulder, "Trust run a few more tests on it and I'll let you go. We honestly have things all set here." Adams declared and he spun around to return to his station with his two cohorts; Negus and Danny. Tali sighed as she began the tests.

A few minutes later and Tali signed off her shift and headed up the elevator to the Mess Hall to grab something to eat and talk with Johnson like she promised. Once the elevator had finally reached the crew deck, Tali moved out and turned into the mess hall, grabbing a tube of nutrient paste as she did. Seeing Johnson sitting at one of the tables with a few other officers and Ashley, she moved in and joined them.

Without waiting, she inserted the tube into her vocalizer and began eating. She chucked a glance at Shepard's cabin before looking back towards the group. _Definitely going to have that talk with him later. _She also remembered that Joker had sent her a message earlier on. While waiting for Johnson to finish, she opened her omni-tool to read it.

**{Loading...}**

_July 7, 2183_

_1558 hours. _

_Captain's Quarters, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound towards Jali'Skah System, Hades Lair Cluster._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard._

"Commander, you might want to get down to the Cargo Hold. Wrex wants to talk to you. Sounded...important." Joker reported over the cabin comm as Marcus opened his eyes. All he saw was the bare desk and as he raised his head to face the terminal, he saw that he had been sleeping for little over an hour. Switching his terminal off, he got up and stretched his arms before cleaning up his hair and approaching the door.

Once outside he noticed that the mess hall was teaming with crew members as it was the afternoon tea break in shifts and he had to squeeze his way through the crowd of personnel moving in to acquire their food. Upon finally reaching the elevator and entering it, Marcus hit the panel and waited for it to arrive at the Cargo Hold. When it did, he stepped out to find Wrex pacing along the boards with both Ashley and Garrus absent.

"Wrex, you wanted to talk with me?" Marcus asked, surprised by the look of annoyance on Wrex's face. The krogan battlemaster hadn't shown a level of annoyance like that since they first met in Chora's Den and even that had been short lived. This looked like it had gone on for a while. The krogan suddenly stopped his pacing and spun to face the spectre who was now standing in a relaxed parade rest.

"Yes." Was Wrex's short answer as he stormed towards Marcus and then stopped in front of him, holding his omni-tool in a way that Marcus could see. Looking down, he saw an image of what looked like old, worn, heavy battle armor manufactured specifically for krogan. It even made Wrex's look obsolete and was covered in scratches and scorch marks, along with a purely cyan color. It also looked triple-plated; heavy armor indeed.

"Krogan Heavy Armor...and it looks like it has seen use. But why did you need to talk to me about this? Do you want Johnson to requisition it for you?" Marcus asked, confused at what Wrex was getting at. All the krogan had done was show him a picture of armor, it was exactly enlightening him on what he wanted.

Wrex rolled his blood red eyes at his attitude, "No you idiot. Why would I want to requsition armor that hasn't been used for two thousand years?" Wrex asked and Marcus widened his eyes in realization. _This armor existed since the rachni wars? Judging by the design, it's off krogan manufacture. _

"Well in that case, obviously not. But why are you showing me armor that is thousands of years old?" Marcus asked. Expecting Wrex to point out the 'obvious' once again, Marcus was suddenly surprised that Wrex simply shrugged.

"Because I thought you might be able to help me recover it," Wrex added, moving away, "It's my old family armor, used by my grandfather, Urdnot Seg, all those years ago. He fought during the Rachni Wars and he lead my people to war against the Council in the rebellions. He was a powerful chieftain, but he was killed by turian forces during the Fourth Battle of Noveria at the end of the war. And yes, that used to be a krogan colony." Wrex added at Marcus' raised eyebrow.

_Wow, to think that corporate hellhole had once been a sanctum for krogan fleets and armies. Shit, you learn something every day. _"So I guess this family armor was passed down to your father?" _Shit, I forgot that krogan live as long as asari, if not longer. Damn, Wrex is probably six hundred years old or something. He looks about that age anyway. _

"Yes, and that's not a good thing," Wrex stated with a sneer; it was obvious he didn't like his father. Well, at least the feeling was mutual with Tali, "My father was Urdnot Jarrod and like most of our people's common norm, he's a bloody warmonger. After the rebellions he stated that Clan Urdnot should unify the clans back together and start another war with the turians. He suggested we sneak on Palaven and use their planet as a new homeworld. Tuchanka was just a wasteland to us and in our current state of devolution we were in no state to begin rebuilding."

"And you agreed with him?" Marcus asked but upon Wrex's 'what do you think' look, he gathered he didn't. Which was odd; Wrex had also shown a lot of hostility towards Liara and Garrus, but now he was telling him that he was against attacking Palaven?

"Jarrod was a moron. Sure I hated turians, but attacking them in the first place was idiotic to start with. Attack them again and we'd end up like the rachni," Wrex stated with a wave of his hand, "His calls for war were just blatant and stupid. But I was his son, I looked up to him! So I went along with it. Still, I never wanted my people to go to war again. But I did want to unite Tuchanka under one banner; the urdnot banner. So I proposed that we try to build a new future for ourselves; one that doesn't involve war or fighting, but one where we could rebuild and make scientists to cure the genophage."

"I'm gathering Jarrod wasn't too happy about his son's policies." Marcus suggested and Wrex nodded.

"Yes, the power hungry fool thought I was an idiot, but surprisingly, most of the clan agreed with me and swore their allegiance to me. What loyalists Jarrod had just ran off with him and he later agreed to have a meeting with me at the Hollows."

"Hollows?" Marcus asked.

Wrex sighed, "It's what you humans call a memorial. It's the place where we honored our ancestors who fought the turian fleets and armies during the krogan rebellions and the rachni during the rachni wars," Wrex explained, "When I got there he gave me one last chance to join him. What did I do? I refuse of course. I'm not as stupid as he give me credit for."

"Never doubted you Wrex." Marcus stated and the both of them chuckled before Wrex continued.

"And then his little minions attack me," Wrex explained, "Just jumped out from the hollows like zombies from the grave. There was too many for me to take on. But before I left, I made sure to plunge my knife deep into his throat; the one place no krogan can regenerate. I watched him slowly bleed to death before I made my escape."

"When I got back to the urdnot camp though, I was disgusted to find that Wreav, my blood brother, had decided to use my absence to continue Jarrod's goals. He had even managed to capture some salarians and forced them to work on a cure while under constant torture for non-compliance. They all died." Wrex stated.

"So what did you do?" Marcus asked.

"The only option I had left. I'd given up hope on my people. We were doomed to extinction as the genophage would just continue to consume our young until we're all but wiped out. So like I said, I did the only thing left for me. Wreav had already considered me exiled so all that was left was for me to leave. So I did. I just took one of the old shuttles and took off. I became a mercenary and have been one ever since. I haven't seen Tuchanka since." Wrex finished and Marcus felt himself feeling sorry for the krogan. Just like the quarians, they were cast out and noone cared. Unlike quarians however, they were infected with a virus that stopped them from having the chance of a baby. Only one in a million survived.

"I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to your Wrex. But, why are you telling me this? Have your people finally found a cure for the genophage? Did Jarrod somehow survive or something? Wreav calling you back? What?" Marcus asked.

Wrex shook his head, "Family armor, remember? You humans really are slow to keep up." Wrex joked and Marcus shook his head as he waited for Wrex to elaborate.

"I just discovered that the family armor has been recovered from Jarrod's body and is now in the hands of some turian scumbag named Tonn Actus. He's a guy who collects historical items of value and keeps them on one of his bases on Tantau in the Phoenix System, Argos Rho Cluster. He then sells them to the highest bidder. He's hired a bunch of low-grade mercenaries to protect him as well. That armor belongs to me and I want it back!"

"So what you're telling me is that you want to go to Tantau to get your armor back? And your sure these 'low-grade mercs' are the only opposition we'll be facing?" Marcus asked.

"Yes, and to kill that smug son-of-a-bitch as well. Kalros knows how many items he's stolen so the galaxy would be better without him," Wrex stated, "We move in, take out the mercs, kill Actus and get the armor back. It's literally that simple." Wrex stated.

Marcus thought through it for a second before responding, "Nothing's that simple, but I guess it's worth the detour. I'll have Joker plot in the coordinates immediately. Let's go get that family armor of yours." Marcus declared and headed back towards the elevator. Just be entered it, Wrex called out to him.

"Shepard."

He turned around and saw the krogan standing at his usual spot, Solokov out, "Wrex?"

"Thank you. That armor is probably a piece of junk but it's good to know someone cares about the krogan. Thank you."

Marcus smiled warmly, "Don't mention it. You're part of my crew Wrex, everyone gets fair treatment no matter the race. No moral issues on this ship." Marcus stated before entering the elevator.

"Yeah, yeah. Save the morality speeches for the other fleshies. At least they care. I just want to shoot something." Wrex waved his hand as he turned back to his shotgun and continues polishing it, the elevator door closing to Marcus' chuckling.

"Only you Wrex. Only you." Marcus commented as the elevator began its ascent back to the crew deck. Keying his comm, he contacted Joker.

"This is Normandy transportation services, please hold." Joker responded and Marcus just laughed.

"Joker, cut the crap. New coordinates. Take us to Tantau, Phoenix System, Argos Rho Cluster. We've got a errand to run for Wrex." Marcus stated and Joker acknowledged by inputting the coordinates and changing relays.

"Where else do you want to drop by on our way to Jali'Skah? MacDonalds maybe? Or maybe you'd like to visit Jerks R'Us." Joker remarked.

"Just get us to Tantau Joker before I decide to introduce you to the circus. You'd fit in well." Marcus ordered and was about to hear Joker's earful of responses but he cut the comm before the pilot could get a word in. Now on the crew deck, he spun and headed for his cabin.

_Time to suit up._

**{Loading...}**

_July 5, 2183_

_1215 hours._

_Salarian Base Camp, Crash Site of the Endeavour Dates, Eastern Perimeter, Virmire._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire._

_Captain Waui Kirrahe, Commander Osei Rentola, Master Sergeant Mordin Solus, Specialist Maelon Heplorn._

"Master Sergeant Solus, where is Imness and Avot? They've not reported in since Avot's report on the Breeding Facility. All contact has been lost." Kirrahe ordered as Mordin, followed by Maelon, entered the main bunker, with Rentola saluting Kirrahe and leaving to check on the prefab armoury in the next tent. Solus was quick to answer.

"Contact lost yesterday. Distress Call broke through frequencies," Mordin reported in his usual rapidfire, "All infiltration teams compromised. Possibly dead or alive, impossible to tell without very recon and loss of life. Now down on quarter of men," Mordin paused to take a deep breath, "Situation problematic."

Kirrahe sighed heavily as he shook his head, "Tell me about it. Very well; Maelon," Kirrahe stated, turning towards Maelon who stood at attention next to Mordin. The soldier was young and naive, if a bit restless, but he and Mordin were brilliant techs and scientists, so he had potential. Mordin was his mentor and had been for what seemed like four years. Salarians lived short lifespans, and Mordin was closing in on his. Only seven years left.

"I want you start looking around the wreckage for something we can use as ordnance. It is quite clear that whatever Saren is planning here won't have him hanging around for much longer, the fleet simply won't arrive in time; we have to act now. Find something we can use to blow this to kingdom kum and report back. Move it!" Kirrahe barked and Maelon immediately saluted, spinning his heels and running towards the Endeavour Dates' wreckage.

"Possibility of surviving such an assault unlikely. Will possibly die. Noway to tell," Mordin stated, "You know this however. Has to be done. Galactic safety top priority." Mordin stated just as Rentola returned from the armoury, retaking his place at Kirrahe's side.

"We all must do our part Solus," Kirrahe stated, arms moving to his back as he walked around the table towards Mordin, "We're a regiment against two fully-armed geth divisions. We are totally outnumbered and have no chance of success. You remember the stories of the Rachni wars? The krogan rebellions? The unification war?" Kirrahe asked.

"Every one of them. Hard to forget. Father explained much," Mordin stated, "Relevance however, not certain." Kirrahe allowed a smile to crease his features as he lay a three-fingered hand on Mordin's shoulder, "We salarians held strong during all of them. We do not surrender, we do not show weakness. We are salarian! The masters of espionage! We hid in the shadows as our enemies attacked and we slit their throats one by one! Without us, peace was uncertain! And when we charge the geth fortress today, will he eagerly wait in the shadows?"

"Yes." Mordin answered simply.

"Will we show patience?"

"Yes."

"And when we pounce, will peace be achieved even in the wake of our deaths?"

"Yes."

"Wrong! Peace will not be achieved! But we sure as well will fight for it! For Sur'Kesh!" Kirrahe shouted.

"For Sur'Kesh!" Repeated Rentola and Mordin and it wasn't long before the whole camp joined in the cheering, the voices of an entire regiment echoing along Virmire's canyon walls. Kirrahe smiled as he eyed the perimeter wall of Saren's geth fortress. _Yes. Let Saren here the war cries of the salarian union. Let it be the last thing he hears as he falls to his knees from the fireball of our ordnance. Let his pleas for forgiveness be the last thing he utters. The salarian union will not show mercy. Saren has sinned greatly and he will pay for his crimes._

With the voices now dying down, the salarian soldiers returned to their duties while Mordin saluted Kirrahe and moved off to get his troops ready and fed. Kirrahe then moved back inside the bunker with Rentola to prepare their battle plans.

"So what do we plan to do when we assault Saren's base sir?" Rentola requested, still standing in parade rest on the other side of the table, Kirrahe leaning over as he skimmed through the datafeeds sent back by Avot and Imness' teams. _By the gods, this fortress is more heavily defended on the inside then the outside. If we launch a frontal assault, those fighters and defense cannons will tear us down before we can hit the perimeter._

Looking up to address Rentola's question, he shook his head, "There isn't a plan. We attack. I'm planning to seperate us to four teams; Aegohr, Mannovai, Jaeto and Shadow. Aegohr, Mannovai and Jaeto will launch a frontal assault against the eastern perimeter and bunker down while Shadow infiltrates through the western perimeter and places the bomb. Either way, we're all going to die. I don't expect any of us to survive this Rentola. Attacking the frontal area will be suicidal at best."

"I'll lead the frontal assault sir. I'm not afraid to die." Rentola declared.

"You're a respectable commander Rentola, but I'm putting you as second-in-command. I'll be leading the frontal assault. Solus will lead shadow. He and his men will have a better chance of escaping then we do." Kirrahe stated.

"But sir, you said yourself that an assault like this is suicidal. Casualities will be heavy. It'll be like that human 'battle of normandy' all over again." Rentola stated. _Except the geth are in a better position than the germans and we don't a fleet to back us. _

"I understand our situation Rentola and that is why I must go. I will not be known as the salarian who stood by and watched as the geth burned Sur'Kesh to the ground. No, not before I send the geth straight to hell. Rentola, it has been an honor serving with you." Kirrahe stated and held out his hand, Rentola taking it and shaking it.

"The honor's mutual sir. Now it's time to show the geth what salarians are really made of." Rentola stated before saluting.

"We attack in two days. Get the men ready and fed. Don't bother telling them the risks. I'm sure they already know." Kirrahe ordered before turning and walking outside alongside Rentola.

_I just hope the turians make sure to burn Rannoch to the ground._

**{Loading...}**

_July 8, 2183_

_1601 hours._

_Privately Owned Mercenary Base, Ovaltine Continent, Southern Hemisphere, Tuntau._

_Eden Prime War. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex._

The Mako continued to traverse the vast landscape of Tuntau as it quickly approached the merc base. The mixed dirt and snow was kicked up by the vehicle's wheels as it continued its approach, the warm winds being the only sound to be heard for miles. The planet was all but silent; a place so deathly silent that it made it uninhabitable. Only mercs and pirates could set up bases on this world and they were usually temporary.

Marcus had decided to only bring a team of three this time; Tali, himself and Wrex. If what the krogan said was correct, and these mercs really were mediocre, then he wasn't going to need a full team to eliminate them. Besides, in his close quarters, all he needed were shotgun specialists and Tali and Wrex were it. Wrex was mandatory for this mission and Tali was needed to hack any security.

It had taken only a few minutes from the drop zone to reach the merc base and it was no poorly defended that any resistance wasn't going to put up much of a fight; barricades surrounded the front of the base where at least seven lightly armed hanar and turian mercenaries were. Marcus had to suppress a chuckle at the sight of the hanar's ten tentacles all holding ten pistols of numerous types. Hanar were more lethal then anyone gave them credit for.

Wrex didn't even wait as the Mako's main gun reared on the mercenaries, hitting the trigger and opening fire. A blast of molten hot fury impacted the nearest hanar, causing what Marcus could only describe as 'pink jelly blood' to explode in all directions and sent his turian cohorts flying in multiple directions with dismembered limbs and broken bones.

Systematically unleashing hell across the field left every merc dead. A squad of reinforcements exited the building, but apart from a single elcor, which he described as a four-legged tank, they didn't offer much lethality and were dealt with easily. Just as the Mako smashed through the barricades, a feminine asari voice came over the exterior intercomm.

"Shit! Alliance found us! Inform Tonn of hostiles outside and have all squads assume defensive poisitions! Move your asses!" The voice was gone as soon as it appeared but before Marcus could even order Tali to move, Wrex shouted, "So we meet again! Small galaxy I guess!" Wrex hit the panel and jumped outside, Tali and Marcus following quickly behind him.

"What do you mean meet again? You recognize that voice? Wrex!" Marcus shouted but Wrex didn't even answer as he just shoved his shotgun into the door circuits and fired, opening the door and allowing him inside. Annoyed by Wrex's omnipresent ignorance, Marcus signalled for Tali to ready her shotgun and moved inside, his own shotgun at the ready.

When they got inside, they saw at least four squads aiming their weapons at them. The room was essentially just storage, not the actual historical storage room. In the center of the squad was a lightly armed turian with purple and blue facepaint; born of the the colony Romulus. The turian had a predatory grin on his mandibles, an asari standing next to him with her assault rifle ready and smiling smugly at Wrex. Yes, they definitely knew each other. Arch nemesis?

"Wrex, it's been too long," The asari smugly addressed the krogan, approaching him and stroking his cheek with her lithe hands as she then walked back, assault rifle still held firmly in her grip as she stopped next to Tonn and stroked his mandibles.

Wrex's response was below a growl, "Fifty-six years too long." Marcus just looked between the two before asking, "Wrex, just who is this? You know her?" _Small galaxy is right. This can't have been a coincidence. What is the chances to two former enemies just happening to meet on some random planet? Unless Actus dug into Wrex's history._

Wrex's eyes narrowed at the asari merc as he entered, "Aleena. She and I met during one of my contracts. We decided to join forces afterwards and our exploits quickly became galactically known. Even the quarians knew about us. We raided ships, killed off targets, blew up shit, you name it, we did it," Wrex explained, "But then I got a contract from some volus ambassador named Din Korlack told me to take out a certain person that may be too open mouthed to let live. Take a wild guess at who."

Aleena smiled as she fingered her assault rifle, "Mercenary business can be such dirty work." She smiled smugly once again and Marcus swore she looked so bloody ugly when she did. Normal asari looked pretty when they did, when Aleena did she just looked rotten.

"So we decided to battle it out. Took her to one of these space stations controlled by the Blue Suns. At least when we battled there, then we if killed a straggler then we couldn't be charged for killing an innocent," Wrex stated with a grin, "We fought for a while. Killed a few blue suns. I was strong but she was fast. It lasted about four days until I finally locked her in a medical bay while she was cleaning up her own wounds."

Aleena's smile grew wider, "Well, that's what I wanted you to think. I was actually on my way out in a shuttle."

"Yeah, I figured that since she was trapped at the Blue Suns were assholes anyway, I'd overload the station reactor and just leave in a shuttle. Whole place lit up, killing the blue suns bastards onboard and, I thought, Aleena. But a month later and she sends me a message saying 'better luck next time.' Well, I guess now is that time, Aleena. Are you ready to finish what we started?" Wrex suggested, pointing his Solokov directly at the asari.

Smiling devilishly, Aleena levelled her own weapon directly at Wrex, "It would be my pleasure. I've looked forward to this for fifty-six years."

Marcus lowered his own weapon at Aleena but Wrex shoved it away, "No. Aleena's mine. You deal with the mercs and Actus and get my armor back. Aleena's mine!" Wrex then shouted a war cry as both mercs charged forward and slammed into each other in an explosion of biotic energy, the nimble asari and krogan juggernaut battling it out.

Shrugging at Tali, they both leapt into cover as the mercs opened fire, Aleena repeating Wrex's words to her mercs, ordering them to focus on Marcus and Tali. Marcus signalled for Tali to activate Chiktika while he emptied two shotgun rounds into a hanar that had attempted to flank them, but only ended up dead on the ground.

It didn't take long for Chiktika to take the scene and begin hammering four turian and asari mercs that had attempted a flanking maneveur but failed. Chiktika's incineration rounds made short work of their armor and their screams were the last thing heard from them as they fell to the ground, dead. Tali immediately followed up by firing her pistol into the enemy ranks, trying to lure them out so Chiktika or Marcus could deal with them.

On Marcus' side, their was something completely different unfolding. A squad of turian, hanar and elcor mercs were advancing on his position and fast. But he would let them, because he had an idea. Turning to Tali, he reacted quickly.

"Tali! See that crate three meters to your right? Get to it! Trust me, I'll protect you, just go!" Marcus ordered as Tali then ran out from cover, Chiktika following close behind her. Using his biotics to form a barrier around her, the mercs' attacks pinged harmlessly off his biotic barrier, allowing Tali to get there without a hassle.

"Go, I'll cover you!" Tali shouted but seeing Marcus form a barrier around himself, just ordered Chiktika to pound the enemy's flank. To help out Wrex, she ordered Chiktika to secretly overload Aleena's shields, giving the krogan a better chance. It was the least she could do to repay him for what happened on Rayingri.

Once Marcus reached her, she watched as he waited for the merc squad to attempt their flanking attack. When they did come around, Marcus concentrated his biotic energy and fired a biotic missile, the attack impacting the center of the squad and exploding in a flurry of dark energy, vaporizing the enemy squad. Marcus, exhausted from using his biotics so much and getting a headache from his implants, slumped down next to Tali, grabbing a grenade from his belt and priming it.

Tali noticed this and stopped for a second, "Shepard, are you okay? Are you hurt?" She asked with a concerned voice. She hadn't seen any blood, but she had to be sure.

"I'm fine, just a headache from my L3 implant, that's all," As he said this, Marcus came out of cover and tossed the grenade, quickly ducking back as the grenade landed near one of the crates, a loud boom echoing through the room and the sound of guts being scattered. He had killed but he didn't know how many. Just how many mercs had Actus hired?

"Shepard, Chiktika is out of energy. I need to deactivate her to let her recharge," Tali informed the spectre as she summoned Chiktika back, deactivating her upon return and slipping the little holographic ball into one of her suit pockets, "We'll need to think of something."

Just as she finished, Wrex went smashing into one of the crates and Aleena jumped ontop of him, forming biotic energy in her fist. Wrex glowed with his own biotic energy and a shockwave sent Aleena flying into a wall where Wrex got back up and charged back into battle. Due to lack of a shotgun in his hand, he gathered he had decided to go with hand-to-hand.

Without really thinking, Marcus extended his punisher sniper rifle and peeked out of cover, looking for a target. He found it, and who else did he find? Tonn Actus. _Got you now, asshole. _Within in the blink of an eye, Marcus pulled the trigger and a heavy round pounded into Actus' face, ripping it apart and leaving the turian a dead heap on the ground, his assault rifle clattering to the side.

He once again lowered his sniper on another merc and fired, the round once again ripping off the elcor's head as it fell to the ground with a huge thump. With his sniper rifle overheated, he holsters it and pulls out his shotgun once again, glowing with biotic energy as he increases his shield strength and steadily approaches the mercs who fire at him.

With every step, he fired a shotgun blast. For every shotgun blast, the mercs met it with a renewed salvo of gunshots. It didn't take long for his biotically-charged shields to be overwhelmed and by the time he reached cover, he had taken three shots to his upper chest. The armor had slowed down the force of the rounds and therefore none of his lungs or liver were damaged, but he was still wounded.

Tali called out to him, but the horde of gunfire drowned out her words and he couldn't hear her. His comms must have been damaged by the merc attack as all he heard was static. Getting up and unleashing a second biotic flare, he watched as the final squad of mercs was blown apart, leaving just Wrex and Aleena.

"Shepard! You're injured! Let me check those wounds!" Tali exclaimed as she ran towards him, but a single raised hand stopped her, "I'm fine Tali, honestly. It's a few scrapes and bruises that Doctor Chakwas can take care of back on the Normandy. We should check on-" Marcus didn't finish as he watched Aleena get tossed over the containers and land in a heap on the floors. Wrex followed after her after slamming through the crates; the krogan battlemaster being a fearsome sight as he loomed over the downed asari.

She tried to crawl to her feet, but Wrex's foot met her gut and she toppled back down. She was weaponless and therefore no threat, but this was Wrex's fight. _No, that's not how it works! Stop this now! _Just as he saw Wrex extend his Solokov and aim it at the back of Aleena's head, he lunged forward and pushed his weapon down.

"Idiot! What are you doing?" Wrex bellowed, anger in his eyes as he looked at Marcus. But he wasn't backing down.

"Look at her! She's defenseless and completely unable to fight back. Ask yourself; is it honorable to kill an opponent when he/she cannot fight back? If you do that, your as bad as any assassin." Marcus stated, appealing to the krogan's sense of honor. Wrex seemed to think about this for a few seconds but just as she seemed to give in, Aleena lunged up, roared and charged at them.

Without hesitation, Wrex raised his shotgun and pulled the trigger, a heavy tungsten slug exiting the barrel and ripping Aleena's chest wide open, sending the multilated asari flying into nearby crates, toppling them over as her dead corpse disappeared under them. Wrex scoffed as he looked at Marcus, "You call that defenseless? I call it dead asari walking." Wrex pouted before pushing past him and approaching what looked like the family armor from the photo.

Marcus and Tali followed him but allowed him some room. When Wrex spoke, it was low and almost in a whisper, "I can't this piece of junk was part of tradition. I guess there's alot of things about krogan culture that needs to change." Wrex stated as rammed his fist into the glass case, shattering it and grabbing the armor as he ripped his own armor off and fitted on the family armor. When he turned around, he looked like a real battlemaster, not a mercenary.

"I am Urdnot Wrex, and I'm the rightful clan chief of urdnot!" Wrex then pounded his fists together as he ran past them chuckling. Marcus smiled at Tali and she responded with her own smile behind her mask and they followed the krogan out of the building.

**{Loading...}**

_July 8, 2183_

_1607 hours._

_Presidium, Council Chambers, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War. _

_Councilor Tevos, Councilor Sparatus, Councilor Valern, Ambassador Donnel Udina._

Udina watched the council as they took their positions on the podium. He straightened his own uniform to make sure he look presentable before entering a straight forward position. Anderson had declined to attend the meeting as he stated that he needed to attend a meeting with Admiral Mikhailovich to discuss supply routes for the 63rd Scout Flotilla. That or he could have been looking for a way not to attend. No matter.

When the Council had taken their spots, Tevos spoke, "Ambassador Donnel Udina, do you know why you have been brought before the Council?" The asari asked, her voice calm and casual as always. Sparatus just gave him the usual death glare while Valern just looked pensive, as always.

Udina cleared his throat as he responded, "I'm afraid not councilor. Has something happened that I need to be alerted about?" He tried to sound calm as well, but he feared he might have come off as forceful. Politics was delicate work. One wrong tone, one wrong word, and you can screw up an entire meeting. He couldn't screw this up.

This time, Valern responded, "Yes. We recently lost contact with one of our STG infiltration regiments in the traverse. It had been investigating the Sentry Omega Cluster in the Hoc system for evidence of Saren's activities. His...base of operations, we assumed." Udina raised an eyebrow at this. _Are they saying they found Saren? Why wasn't I informed earlier! I could have add two alliance fleets dispatched to deal with it with just a couple of words to Garrong! No, keep your cool. Remember, don't screw this up._

"What did you find?" Udina responded, desperately keeping the anger out of his voice.

Raising a salarian eyebrow at Udina's sweating face, he answered. _Sometimes I worry about him..._ "Nothing. Like we said, contact was lost. However, a few days later, we got what appeared to be the regiment's attempts at contact or a distress call." Valern then motioned to Tevos, and she hit a button on her panel and a holoscreen appeared above their heads, playing a recording of the message.

"Captain...he...need...et...foun...base...tions... need...immed...assis...tance...send...fl...he...ou t." The screen then disappeared, Udina's eyes returning to the Council.

Valern spoke once again, "The signal originated from Virmire. We think Saren's base of operations is there, but we can't confirm it until we link up with that regiment. We'd like to know what you think; should we contact the Normandy and have them divert to Virmire?"

"Completely. It's the safest option and knowing Shepard, he'll want that base blown to hell and back. I will shall contact him now. Thank you councilors." With that, Udina bowed slightly and left, Tevos announcing the meeting's end.

_If this is true then we've found Saren._

_And his time has come._

**"So...Virmire, huh?"**

**- Carter Dielheart.**

**"Yep. Darkest period of the war. It's where things became real. Again."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**


	27. Chapter 22 A Step Into The Future

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:**

**A STEP INTO THE FUTURE**

_January 2, 2251 (Translated Khelish Time) _

_Eighth Hour, Thirty-Four Minutes._

_Republican Uma'Waz Barracks, Fort Dawning Horizon, Quarian Authorized Sector, Rannoch._

_Terra-Rannoch War._

_Drill Instructor Reby'Reegar pav Rannoch, Superintendent Tax'Dor pav Rannoch. _

"Quit slacking! Pick up the pace!" Reby shouted, her breathing light as she had been serving in the republican military ever since the Second Galactic Economical Collapse of 2206. This was second nature to her, "You're soldiers, not rookies! Zorah, Rogers, Illz! You two can give me two hundred sit ups and then run an additional five laps!" The groans she heard made her smile. Some call her sadistic, she preferred to think that she was doing what her father taught her to do.

She noticed that Shepard was keeping up with the group and smiled at how well the soldier had come. Tali'Shepard had taught him well. Apparently Thane had excelled in all his combat exercises and even demonstrated an extreme ability in hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, shotgun handling, close quarters, demolitions and even tech, the human/quarian christening his drone 'Marcus', after his dad. She also felt a pang of sympathy for the kid. He never got to meet his father.

Seeing that her squad was picking up sufficient pace, she left Thane to lead the rest and returned to her post at the side of the wide oval. As she approached, she looked to see that the superintendent and arrived to inspect her barracks and she sighed. Tax'Dor was known for being a complete bosh'tet to those he dealt with and she doubted today would be any different. There was strict superintendents, then there was Tax. Ancestors know why he's lived for so long in the military. Probably to feed Han'Gerrel's sense of power.

"Superintendent, sir!" Reby announced, snapping into the quarian traditional salute; knee on the ground while holding a fist to her chest. To other races, a superintendent was the commander of a police force. To quarians, they were military inspectors, "I was not aware of your arrival, sir. I would have made preparations."

Tax shared her a temporary glance of contempt and straightened his back, "At ease, Lieutenant. This isn't an inspection, not by us anyway. A coalition cruiser will be arriving later today and I just wanted to notify you." Reby's eyes widened as she heard that. The coalition coming to inspect? This early?

The United Terran Coalition had been formed from the remains of the Systems Alliance seventy years ago and had built into a Terran-Rannochian Alliance twenty years after. It was now a strong, powerful empire that spanned the now defunct Attican Traverse, a quarter of Council Space and half of the Terminus Systems. Humanity formed the political backbone and had more fleets, but the quarians provided better troops and their advances in reaper technology.

The Council had fallen apart after the Reaper War and Council Space was all but defunct. There were multiple factions; the Coalition, the Krogan confederacy, the Covenant and the Sanctum. So far, the Coalition was at war with the Covenant while the rest waged skirmishes occassionally. The Sanctum was reserved while the Covenant were warmongers. The confederacy was ruled by Urdnot Wrex and was allied with the Coalition and the coalition itself remained the most powerful power on the galactic stage.

The quarians were the peacekeepers; they were desperately trying to arrange a cease fire with the Covenant, but being the warmongers they were, all attempts failed or ended in fleet engagements. The Covenant wasn't losing the war; it was more of a stalemate. The quarians and humans had superior military power, but the Covenant mostly specialized in hit and runs, making it very hard to hit directly at Khar'Shan or Ughan (Vorcha Homeworld).

Usually, the humans, or the 'Galactic Coalition' as they preferred to be called, as they apparently thought they spearheaded the alliance, sent a cruiser to inspect the training grounds on Rannoch to make sure they were in tip-top shape. Politically, it was unnessacary. Militarily, it was standard routine and mandatory, so she had to adhere to it. It was part of the Coalition's conditions and therefore was compulsory.

Her throat felt dry as she cleared it and answered, "Yes sir, I shall prepare them immediately. When can we expect the inspection crews to arrive?" Reby asked, standing up and moving to key her comms as Tax answered, "Eight minutes. It's getting desperate. One of the Coalition's research facilities was recently attacked by batarian forces. They're pushing forward."

After acknowledging Thane's reply, she turned to look at Tax with a raised eyebrow, "To where? Are they making a break for quarian space or human space? If they want to attack our space that'd be suicidal. They must know that the geth can hold off any assault made by their forces." Reby declared out of fact. The new geth dreadnoughts, based off reaper design, were more than capable of dealing with the inferior batarian warships.

Tax nodded, "They're making best speed for Earth. They've already tried pathetic moves at the Citadel, but our defense forces picked 'em off like those flies on Earth. Humans are getting worried though and request more troops, specifically quarian techs. They want at least a squad and your men are it. You'll be keeping post until the next load of trainees pops up." Reby rolled her eyes. _Great more rookies, fresh off the bat. Why did I sign up for this?_

Thane quickly joined her side, "The men are ready, ma'am," Thane saluted, in the human fashion, before also addressing Tax in the quarian form. Tax scoffed at the human, "Is this the...freak that you made squad leader?" Tax had stated in such a fiery way that it made Reby instantly pissed off, but she kept her cool. _Egotistical piece of shit. _Thane was indeed a human/quarian hybrid; having a human anatomy while his physical looks were quarian, save the eyes, which didn't glow. His legs and back, also, weren't arched as quarians were.

Reby's voice was cool and calm, "I'd watch who you address as a freak, sir..." Tax immediately shot her a look of disgust.

"You watch who _you _address, LT! I'm superintendent!" Tax snarled, his voice low and cold but Reby's next state was just as cold.

"You just called the son of Mistress of the High Senate a freak! Are you sure you want to continue this line of thought?"

Tax looked completely flabbergasted and immediately apologized, "Of-Of course not. I-I should get back to the capital. The Prime Candidate should be informed of this inspection. Wouldn't want to think the humans are invading now, would we?" Tax then hurried over to his parked skycar, his adjutants following and Reby just smugly grinned and turned to Thane who looked like he didn't care about what happened. _Has his father's resolve..._

Turning to the squad, she addressed, "Okay, I need twelve techs, step forward! I don't care who or what you are, step forward or I'll have your ass!" Within a few seconds, fourteen techs had stepped forward. Picking twelve; one being the daughter of Shala'Raan pav Rannoch in her purple armor, she then waited the remaining time for the coalition shuttle to arrive.

When it did, the human envoys stepped out, all escorted by marines in N7 heavy armor. Some of those N7s had to be quarians. Stepping out last was Spectre Jessica Alenko, Special Tactics and Reconissance branch of the Coalition's Council. She was tasked with being the active envoy for the conflict until her services required otherwise.

As Jess examined the quarian soldiers all lined up, she approached Reby and held out her hand for the quarian to shake. She took it and shook it with a clear smile, "You already know who I am so I'll skip the formalities, Reby." Jess stated as she turned to Thane.

"As I am grateful for." Reby replied as Thane and Jess shared a quick hug.

"It's been a long time Thane, how you been holding up? Your mother still got you living with her?" Jess teased and Thane rolled his eyes.

"Please, Palon already gave me shit for it, but it's my mum, so what do you expect? She's like a hawk protecting her young with me, and I'm not the only one. Kaidan, Ashley, Penya and Meru are kept under lock and key too." Thane joked.

"Oh, don't you be so melodramatic," Jess retorted, "Besides, I'm sure you could make fun of Palon's love of dextro ice cream."

"Hey! You started that, not him." Thane held his hands infront of him in innocence and Jess laughed half-heartedly.

"Who's side are you on!" Jess joked but upon one of the human officer's prompting she cleared her throat, cleared her face of features, and twisted to face Reby once again, reentering officer's mode. This is what Kaidan trained her to be. Thinking of Kaidan just showed how much she missed her father.

"So, I presume you've have the twelve techs we requested?" Jess asked, her voice dripping with forced formality. Reby nodded as she motioned towards the squad that was lined up in parade rest.

"They're ready for transport. Although, I'd recommend hanging around for at least a day; they many want some time to say goodbye to their loved ones or take them with them." Reby suggested and Jess nodded, "I know the feeling. The captain will give them one earth day, but no more," she then turned to Thane, "A pity we couldn't work with each other again, Thane. It would have been like the good days."

Thane gave a weak smile, "One day, Jess, one day. Maybe when my mum hurries up and dies." Thane joked and Jess gave a mock look of shock towards the soldier before shaking his head and approaching the shuttle, the large vehicle taking off and shooting towards the atmosphere. Reby then looked back at her troops before looking at each and everyone of them.

"All of you are dismissed. For those who are staying, continue, those who are not, go to your homes and hold your unionmates and children close. It may be the last time you see them," Reby added on a sad note. She had known alot of quarian soldiers who had been taken to serve alongside coalition forces who never returned because they were killed in ground-side engagements.

The twelve techs saluted formally and marched off the barracks, heading towards the Ilisk quarian military transports parked outside, all piling inside before the vehicles drove off, carrying their passengers towards the nearest city. Reby had to come to terms with the fact that it could be the last time she ever sees those techs. When hired by the Coalition, they were expected to serve three years of service. Most didn't live past two.

Reby shook her head to clear her senses and watched as the soldiers continued their laps around the oval and upon her prompting, Thane followed them. Reby felt her hands land on her hips as she shook her head. _When will the Coalition stop looking to us for troops. Just because we breed almost as fast as krogan doesn't give them the right to look to us for cheap cannon fodder. If only The Shepard was still alive; with him as human Praetor, he'd give us the respect our people deserve. Sometimes I just feel like the humans are getting ready to get rid of us._

Reby shook those thoughts from her head as she picked up a nearby MPMR battle rifle and raised it above her, "Okay, lap time is over! Everybody, form up and get a weapon! Then head over to the firing range." Reby announced as she began her jog towards the firing range, the trainees following behind her as soon as they had their weapons.

Thane was behind her as always and when she looked behind her, she smiled when she noticed he was keeping up. She swore she had seen his eyes checking her petite form, but she let it slip as she shouted, "Come on, you slackers! You ain't volus are you? Pick up the damn pace!" She looked to her side to see the women weren't faring any better, "Come on girls!"

_Maybe what I need is Mistress Shepard to put them straight. That woman can be real authoritive when she needs to be. Loud voice for someone of her age. _

The group continued towards the firing range as the Coalition Cruiser waited in Rannoch orbit; ready to take twelve of her people to war. Where they would possibly never return.

* * *

_January 2, 2251 _

_0957 hours._

_Alliance History Museum, SSV Normandy SR-2, Kikowani Wards, The Citadel._

_Terra-Rannoch War._

_Garrus Vakarian, Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch._

"Please tell us more Mrs. Shepard! Tell us more about The Shepard!" Jason begged, but Garrus and Tali chuckled. Tali had desperately tried to fight against weeping as she told the story of her unionmate, but as she went along she took solace in the memories; managing to take the good away from the bad as she told the stories of her love for him. Now the memories were bittersweet; days from her youth now long gone.

"I think Tali has told enough stories for one day," Garrus added before turning towards the quarian, "What do you think, Mistress? Think you've dispensed enough wisdom for today?" Garrus had that devilish grin that never seemed to age whenever he was around old friends, and Tali always welcomed it. It showed that she still had friends for her in this life before she joined Marcus in death and could once again melt into his embrace. Some day that would happen. Someday.

Tali giggled as she answered, "Yes, I think I can hear Han begging my presence. Politics. We become our own worst enemy." Tali stated and they both laughed. Marcus, Tali and Garrus, haters of politics, and yet they had all become politicians themselves.

"That we do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to call Palon and make sure he's not getting into trouble again." Garrus stated and hugged Tali before making his exit and heading down the hall, the turian giving a final wink at Tali as he left. The kids' moans and groans of disappointment could be heard throughout the room, but they left nonetheless, their asari school teacher herding them out. Many of the asari had sided with the Coalition when the galactic crisises broke out, but most of the republic had fallen apart by that time.

This made Tali want to weep once more. Everything Marcus had fought for, everything he ever wanted; galactic peace and people to recognize each other as equals. Life after the Reaper War was meant to have been peaceful; instead, the entire galaxy was falling apart. Powerful races battling it out for supremacy, all fighting over the Citadel among other things.

The Covenant had resorted to assuming direct control of the mass relays, moving them or taking control of them to disrupt Coalition supply lines. However, due to breakthroughs in reaper technology, the Coalition had manufactured their own mass relays and were also working on ways to reach the M33 Galaxy. The Citadel was soley under Coalition control, and still rested in Earth orbit, acting as a replacement for Arcturus.

Tali felt unwell setting upon the Citadel, so much had changed. It had been suggested that it remain a memorial to the fallen, but many had decided that it should remain the galactic capital. Upon that declaration, many factions were formed who tried to seize control of the Citadel, but due to the Coalition's rising power and influence, they seized control of it and had been in control of it ever since.

Rumors had reached her ears that Han had plans to construct his own Citadel called the 'Ark', but she had dismissed them. You could not build something so large and keep it a secret. She did not know what 'Ark' meant, but she guessed it was something similiar to the meaning of a Citadel. Why Han would want to build one anyway confused her; one Citadel was enough, was it not?

Tali strolled outside to the sight of numerous skycars wizzing past. The Presidium down below looked as beautiful as ever; despite time passing by, the Citadel refused to age with it. It looked exactly as it did seventy years before. _Oh Mark...I wish you could have been here to see this, my love. _She shook her head to clear her thoughts. _No, he may have wanted to see this, but not the war they commited afterward. It's a disgrace to his name._

Her omni-tool started beeping incessantly and she activated it, bringing up an image of Liara who smiled at Tali as she spoke, "Tali." The asari looked like she had hardly aged a day. She had remained as the Shadow Broker shortly after the reaper war and quickly devoted a large amount of her resources to serving the Coalition's information network, feeding them intelligence on the Covenant's movements.

"Liara, you look well," Tali answered, forming a smile of her own on her face, "Can't say the same for myself." Liara just giggled at Tali's response, dropping the datapad she had been holding on the table infront of her and shaking her head.

"Tali, you look fine. Old, but I can still see that beautiful quarian I met all those years ago," Liara complimented before continuing, "My contacts informed me you were on the Citadel. What are you doing there? I thought your home was on Rannoch."

"It is, but I need a break from that place. I've been living there for over fifty years; I needed a break. I've rented out that apartment Mark used to use when he came here, the one in Tiberius Towers. I'm even teaching some kids about him."

Liara's smile loosened and disappeared. Her voice was low and regretful when she spoke, "Tali...you know you can't keep going on like this. The last time I spoke with you, the mere mention of his name caused you to tear up. Now your giving stories about him? You can't hold onto him forever. You know he would have wanted you to move on."

"Move on, Liara? I tried! I so desperately tried! I buried him and moved on, but I still can't get these thoughts out of my head! And everytime I look at my children; they just remind me of him. How can I move on when I'm a widow looking after what should have been _our _children..." Tali had to fight to hold back tears.

"I know, Tali...it was hard on all of us. He mattered to all of us," Liara stated.

Tali exhaled as she sniffed, "You don't understand Liara. He was my soul. He was my everything. He was my world. Now that he's gone...how have I stayed alive for so long without him? Damn it Liara! It's torture! I've had to fight to keep myself away from weapons; I even had my son remove all weapons from the house out of fear of me finding one and shooting myself!"

Liara sighed, "You've lived on because you have friends who still care about you. Think about how lonely Garrus would feel if you killed yourself fifty years ago? That what is effectively his family all died and all he had was the memory of his deceased wife and his mischief making son? It'd tear him apart, like it would the rest of us."

Tali sighed heavily as she stopped near the Spaceport, leaning heavily against the wall, "I know Liara, I got ahead of myself. I just feel...so empty without him. I have nothing to live for except for my children and it's tearing me apart. It has been for seventy damn years. I can still hear him crying out my name in my sleep. I can hear his cries of pain as Harbinger killed him. I can..." She cut herself off with a deep winded sigh.

"It won't be long Tali. You'll be able to join him in death soon, but for now, enjoy your family and friends. We're still here for you." Liara brought her smile back and Tali formed the best smile she could, knowing the shadow broker would see right through it.

"I feel sorry for you Liara. When the rest of us are dead, you'll live on. You've still got nine hundred years of life left." Liara became gloomy as she watched Tali's features; the quarian truly felt sorry for the asari.

"When I was a child, I used to feel sorry for all of you; thinking that it would suck to only live for a century, and the salarians only last half of that! But now that I see you guys aging so easily, I see it as a curse. Hell, all that will be left for me is Grunt and Wrex, and the latter is already aging close to nine hundred. Another century, and he'll be gone soon."

Tali nodded at the asari's remorse but immediately snapped back to reality, "Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about? I doubt it was just to help me suppress old memories."

Liara laughed, "No, definitely not. No, I wanted to tell you that Prometheus wants to bring you back in." Tali immediately lost her smile again as she groaned. Prometheus, the splintered remains of the SIA. They specialized in interrogating POWs or suspected criminals for information on pretty much anything. When she was last there, they had been trying to glean some information from her about Marcus' past life but she had refused. Everything about that organization gave her shivers, but she had learnt something about a 'Project: Catalyst' as well. That gave her goosebumps.

"What do they want? Can't they take retirement for answer?" Tali stated. She had once worked for Prometheus as a high-level interrogator and also doubled as chief of security there, but she had retired when she had finally had enough. Now they were calling her back and she wanted to know why.

"Didn't specify, just said they needed you to come back to interrogate someone. Apparently he or she needs the quarian touch. Considering quarian interrogation techniques, it seems pretty extreme." Liara stated.

"Tell them to go to hell. When I said permanent retirement, I meant it," Tali stated.

"I told them you would be disagreeable with it, but they promised it would only be for a short time and then you could return to your current duties. Apparently their current interrogator is getting nowhere." Liara then shrugged to add emphasis for her statement.

_I'm too old for this reist. _She sighed in irritation, "Very well, tell them to provide me coordinates for their research facility and I'll have the Revengeance take me there. They swap planets so many times it's hard to keep count of where they're going." Tali then jabbed the deactivation button on her omni-tool and it dematerialized. She was not looking forward to returning to...that place.

As she approached one of the skycars, she was quickly approached by a familiar looking man. Remembering who it was, she doubled her speed towards the skycar, but he managed to keep up. _You're getting too old. _

" , can I have one moment of your time!" It was Jonathan Bint-Sinan Al-Jilani and she wasn't in the mood for this. She just went for the classic 'Shepard' approach.

"I don't have time for your snide insinuations..." Tali growled as she right hooked him in the face, causing him to fall over. For some who was old as she was, she could still punch people pretty damn good. She took pride in that, as her lopsided grin would tell. As she entered the skycar and took off, she could hear Jonathan's pained curses as he threatened the woman, but she didn't listen as the skycar rocketed through the Citadel's skylines.

Tali probably should have expected this when she retired. Prometheus were persistent, so she should have expected this. But if had only been ten years since she retired. Why was she being called back? It just felt...ridiculous.

She left these thoughts at the back of her mind as she watched the Revengeance come into view.

"SSV Revengeance, this is Mistress Tali'Shepard of the Quarian Republic, requesting permission to dock." Tali requested and the familiar voice of the operator replied almost immediately, his robotic geth voice recognizable from anywhere.

"Acknowledged. Request confirmed, welcome home Tali'Shepard." The geth unit named Calypso responded and the comms went silent. In silence, Tali guided her skycar into the Reveageance's hangar. All she could think about from that part onward was why Prometheus needed her.

* * *

_January 2, 2251 _

_1044 hours. _

_Confederate Headquarters, The High Dome, City of the Ancients, Tuchanka._

_Terra-Rannoch War._

_High Chieftain Urdnot Wrex, High Chieftess Urdnot Bakara, Prime Candidate Han'Gerrel pav Rannoch vas Rannoch, Praetor Connor Faringar._

"You come to my planet, my people, and have the quad to think your better than us? This is our planet and we will choose the allies we wish to fight alongside!" Wrex shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the praetor, "When you landed on Tuchanka, you accepted my authority. Remember that." Bakara was able to calm the krogan and he sat down, letting the Praetor continue.

"We did not state we were better than anyone," Connor responded, unfazed by the krogan's fit of rage, "We merely suggested that your absorption into the Coalition would allow us both a better chance of fighting the Covenant and their indoctrinated minions. The technology they have in their grasp is frightening enough. We need to know that we're mutual friends in this conflict."

Throughout the meeting, Han'Gerrel had remained mostly stoic and reserved, not really bothering to add anything beneficial to the meeting. He had made it perfectly clear where the quarians stood in this conflict and they weren't budging. Either the krogan promised military support or the Coalition would have to launch a full-scale counterattack against the Covenant and systematically wipe them out. Genocide wasn't an option they were looking for.

The Praetor's voice broke him out of his musings, "What do you think, Gerrel? On the matter of the Covenant's indoctrinated troops, I elaborate." Praetor stated in his usual monotone, his geth bodyguard, Caesar, remaining just as stoic the entire time, it's red and blue armor casing shining brightly, red optics reminding all that he was a soldier. Caesar was one of many geth that had modified its voice modulators to sound more feminine, but this had ceased as the geth saw no point to it.

"I'd say the indoctrinated forces are not something to fret," Gerrel responded in his monotone voice, "They're merely puppets they need to be cut off at the source. What worries me is that the Covenant may have mastered the indoctrination technology," Gerrel continued, "Which means they now possess an advantage over our troops. Reports have come to my attention that they are even attempting to reanimate reaper corpses with help from the Leviathans."

Wrex snorted, "That could easily be dealt with."

The Praetor shook his head, "On the contrary; the Leviathans are located deep in the Sanctum's space. Even though the Pylos Nebula is just on the other side of our borders, doesn't mean it will be easy to take them out. The Sanctum have remained neutral so far and we don't want them to think we're declaring war on them. That would be counterproductive."

"Just have the geth send some of their reapers in there. Haven't you been working on those harbinger-class warships?" Wrex pondered.

"Yes, but they are hardly subtle, especially in there state." Gerrel responded.

"Gerrel is correct," Caesar added, "Current statistics show that the prototype launch of our first harbinger-class vessel won't be for another month, and then another two months will be needed to perfect the class and rid it of any design flaws before we go into conventional use and mass-manufacturing."

"Then nuke the bloody planet. It's mostly ocean anywhere, noone will miss it," Wrex suggested.

"Nuclear weapons? Don't you think the Sanctum will be alarmed if we started firing nuclear missiles into their space? Certainly not." Gerrel responded.

"It's a sound strategy, but I'm forced to agree with Gerrel," Connor responded, "We'll let the Covenant have their fun with the Leviathans for now, but at some point we will have to snatch that asset away from them-" Connor was about to finish when his omni-tool beeped and he anwered the message. When he was done, he shook his head.

"What happened?" Bakara pondered.

"Four batarian carriers managed to break through the maginot line and are moving to invade Feros. I've just been informed by Fleet Admiral Stanford about it," Connor answered, "I have the Eleventh Fleet moving to intercept them. It's being taken care of." Connor stated. The Eleventh Fleet was spearheaded by the state-of-the-art Pandorica-Class Dreadnought SSV Pandorica and contained a large number of human, quarian and geth warships.

"Look, if I promise the confederacy's allegiance to the Coalition, will you leave us be?" Wrex stated. He knew the Confederacy wasn't much of a threat to the Coalition militarily or politically, but they still had a fleet of bloody dreadnoughts that could cause some damage so he just hoped he could play his cards right.

"Of course. We will even provide additional mass relays for you to use at your own disposal, as well as data on how to manufacture them properly," Connor offered and Wrex looked to Bakara for confirmation. Seeing her nod, he turned back and nodded as well.

"Well that done, what other matters shall we attend to?" Connor asked.

"Well, there's still that problem about the batarian blockade around Lango. I think a liberation movement is needed. I propose dispatching the Second and Third Fleets to retake Lango and liberate any POWs or oppressed civilian populaces planetside."

The meeting continued on for hours. If there was end in sight, Wrex wasn't seeing it. He just let Bakara's head rest on his shoulder as he listened to the politicians drone on and on. _Damn I miss Shepard. He would have found me a battle by now or a way to make politics sound interesting. He would have made a great Praetor._

_January 4, 2251_

_1551 hours. _

_{CLASSIFIED LOCATION}_

_Special Tasks Group Operative Commander Carter Dielheart, Lieutenant Jaris 'Siren' Paltarons, Commander Reia'Inas pav Earth._

"Are you shitting me! That was mine!" Carter shouted as Reia poked her tongue at him and Siren simply laughed loudly. They were originally doing this for practise at the firing range; training their marksman skills, but now it had turned into a competition of 'who was the better shot.' Reia was beating them.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure my rifle scope fell over it first," Reia retorted and Carter just rolled his eyes as he took aim at the holographic targets again. A fifth salvo let out and Reia was the last one to score a hit, making her the winner. The field beeped loudly to dictate Reia as the winner.

"Good game," Siren congratulated Reia and shook her hand and it was Carter's turn to congratulate her. Instead, he hesitated, glaring at her hand like it was poison.

Reia noticed this and grinned devishly, "What's wrong, Nemesis? You've never shook a girl's hand before? Or are you afraid of getting, what is that human word, cooties? Such a silly word." Carter finally gave in to Reia's teasing and shook her hand and before he could do anything, she kissed him on the cheek and ran off.

Siren laughed loudly at the look of annoyance on Carter's face, but the STG operative ignored him as he returned his weapon to its stock and continued on out of the room, Siren following not far behind.

"Lighten up, Carter. You act as if you've never been kissed by a girl before," Siren stated, "Besides, at least it was on the cheek only." His last line caused Carter to look at him with a raised brow before answering.

"Never been kissed by an _alien _girl before," Carter stated.

"Oh come on, quarians aren't so different from us humans. It can't have been any different from having your girlfriend kiss you," Upon seeing Carter's death glare, he raised his hands in surrender, "I rest my case."

Carter shook his head as they worked their way through the busy corridors of the facility, stopping only to let the occassional krogan or geth prime through, but when they finally reached the mess hall, they found Reia leaning on the bench. She looked directly at Carter and blew him a kiss, turning around, swinging her hips before winking at him and entering her tactical cloak, disappearing.

"I despise that woman," Carter stated punctually, glaring at Siren as he grinned.

"You secretly love her," Siren added, Carter ignoring him as he went to get some food, Siren joining him. When they had collected their food, they headed over to one of the mess hall tables. Just before he could dig into his ham and cheese sandwich however, an announcement came over the intercom.

"Could Operative Dielheart report to reception, I repeat, Operative Dielheart, report to reception please." The male voice then disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Siren said his goodbyes as he took Carter's food. Carter only offered his middle finger to the man before he exited the mess hall to head for reception.

As he walked down the corridor, he wondered just why he was being called to reception. _Girlfriend come to visit? New interrogator or visitor? Board of Directors advocate? Damn it, why the hell would I be needed? I'm scheduled for to resume the interrogation with 001 in just ten minutes! I don't have time for this!_

Just as Carter arrived at reception, he was approached by an old quarian woman, definitely in her twilight years, who appeared to be wanting to see him.

"Are you Carter Dielheart?" The woman asked, her voice harsh and old. Carter favored moving behind reception instead of looking her in the eyes as he answered, "Yes, but I don't have time to talk to you. I have someone I need to see."

"I am that person," The quarian announced and Carter immediately snapped his head up to look at her, "Mistress Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch. I've come to relieve an interrogator of their services and continue their job until stated time and date." The quarian named Tali announced and he immediately recognized who she was.

_If she finds out that we've got some of her friends in captation...no, don't think like that. She won't find out. She doesn't have the clearence, even as a Mistress._

"Well, Um...I'll show you the interrogation blocks I guess," Carter motioned his hand for the quarian to lead on while he followed close behind her. When they finally managed to weave through the crowd of people, they arrived at the interrogation block and moved along the large amount of cells as Carter explained their purpose. Tali mostly ignored him as she already knew what they were used for and she stopped at the cell she wanted.

"Um miss, that's cell A5," Carter stated nervously. Tali nodded with a 'duh' written on her face as she opened the door and moved inside. Carter's words rang hollow in her mind, "You might not want to...!"

Tali froze in place as she saw the man who sat in the chair in the pitchblack room. He was blindfolded and strapped to the chair, an electrical device attached incase he failed to listen. Every muscle, every fibre on his body, every bit of him was recognizable. Tali's mouth gaped open in shock; she was lost for words.

Sitting in that chair, was a dead man walking.

"Mark...?" Tali half stated and she moved forward and stroked his face with her hand, "Is that...you my love?" Tali felt like a million emotions were attack her at once. She stroked his prickly beard and his pink skin, all bringing back memories of long ago.

She noticed the subject designator on his jacket and remembered just where her lover was and what they were doing to him. _Interrogation Subject Zero-Zero-One. _Tali screamed in fury as she turned towards Carter who held a pistol at her.

"Why was I not informed!?" Tali screamed, "He was alive this whole time and you never told me!"

Carter tried to remain calm as he answered, "It's not the same man you remember, not the man you loved."

"How dare-" Tali fumed.

"The real Shepard is dead, alright?" Carter stated, silencing Tali as he continued, "What you see is what's left of him. We recovered his body from the ruins of the Citadel after the battle and we tried to resurrect him, but when we did, he turned into a savage. He just get screaming this one name before we restrained him."

Tali had a pretty good idea what name it was and as she felt tears flow down her cheeks, she asked, "Who's name?"

Carter gulped, "Yours."

Tali nodded as she looked at her lover, but immediately tore away her gaze, "What did you do to him? Why is he so...silent?"

"His emotions were destroying him inside. We had to install emotional inhibitors into his brain. However, this produced devastating affects," Carter explained, "He went into a fit of amnesia and never recovered. His memories became suppressed and his emotions were all but absent. He was just a husk of his former self. He was declared dead; what you see is just a lifeless husk. I'm sorry ma'am."

Tali cried as she stroked his cheek once again, "Why didn't you just let him die. To live like this...he doesn't deserve it. And now I'm supposed to interrogate him? Keelah..."

It was now that the husk spoke up, "Who keeps touching my cheek? I recognize that voice but can't place it." Tali looked to him in confusion and then at Carter, her features demanding answers.

"The whole point of our interrogation, or 'interview' as we prefer, was to rebuild his memory block by block," Carter stated, "Like I said, the memories were suppressed, not forgotten. He's been able to remember everything up to Virmire and that's it. We've been trying to get him to remember. We need you to do this, Mrs. Shepard."

"I...I will. I can do it. Leave...us." Tali ordered and with a nod and swipe of the door closing, Carter was gone. Tali just sat down in his chair, picking up his datapad slowly as she eyed the husk of her mate sitting just a meter away from her. _What have they done. They should have let you die my love. _

Even if Marcus did remember who he was, he would never be able to spend the life with her that he promised. Where as he hadn't aged a day, Tali was just years from her death bed. They could never be together again. Whatever chance they had at a peaceful life together was made impossible by the Reapers.

Clearing her throat, she spoke, "Shall we continue?"

Marcus didn't answer for a second but then he spoke, "Who...are you?"

Tali felt tears well in her eyes, "A person that...loved you very much." She tried to not cry.

"Mum?" Marcus asked, "Dad?"

"No. But that's besides the point," Tali sniffed as she read off the datapad. She wanted to finish this quickly. Seeing Marcus, she put a hand on his and squeezed. She smiled as she gently kissed him on the cheek and then sat back down, smiling with hidden sorrow.

"You kissed me...why?" Marcus asked.

"It's...not important."

_And hasn't been for seventy years._

**"Anyway, tell me about Virmire."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"I'll tell you what I can. Don't know if I remember all of it, but I can sure as hell try. But, you still haven't answered my question?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"Not important. Just...tell me what you can..."**

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**I hope this gave you a decent insight into what the future of the mass effect franchise looks like. Alot of developments will happen during this period that will deeply impact the story. So, back to Virmire I guess! **

**Incase you haven't noticed already, this story's 'interrogation sections' were heavily inspired by Full-Paragon's Keelah Se'lai interview sections. I even considered a quarian monarchy, but I decided I wanted to remain original and have my own unique ideas. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the Virmire section!**

**Warning, emotional chapters follow.**


	28. Chapter 23 Heart of Revelations Pt1

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:**

**HEART OF REVELATIONS PART ONE**

_July 8, 2183_

_1301 hours. _

_Debriefing Room, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL Inbound for the Jali'Skah System, Hades' Lair Cluster. _

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Councilor Sparatus, Councilor Tevos, Councilor Valern._

"So what you're trying to tell me is that you sent one of your infiltration regiments into the Sentry Omega Cluster to scout out the Hoc System; and they recently sent a jarbled transmission back to you, from Virmire, but you couldn't make out what they said? And you think Saren's base of operations is right on that planet?"

Valern shook his head, "The problem is that we just don't know, Commander," he explained, "Due to the nature of the transmission and the fact that it was going through mission-only priority channels means that this is most likely the case; their mission was to find Saren's base afterall."

Sparatus nodded at the salarian before turning to Marcus, "Which is exactly why we want you to go to Virmire, locate our regiment and discover see what you can find out. If Saren's base is there, then you are authorized to use any means nessacary to terminate its existence. Hopefully you can do that." The turian councilor finished with a sneer.

"That and more, _Councilor_" Marcus added more emphasis to the turian's status as if it was poisonous to say the word, before turning to Tevos.

"We have utmost confidence in your abilities, Commander," Tevos declared, "May the goddess be with you." With a nod, Marcus watched as the holograms of the Council disappeared, leaving the air empty once again. _'Utmost confidence.' My ass!_

Keying the comm to the cockpit, he contacted Joker, "Joker, have the team assemble in the debriefing room. Things just got interesting."

"How interesting? What, did the crew get sent auditions for a movie?" Joker asked, optimism in his voice.

"No...don't know why you'd think that," Marcus said, shaking his head in bemusement, "No, we just got information on Saren's whereabouts." Marcus explained.

"OH...in that case, list them as on the way. Messages have been sent to their omni-tools, per your request." Joker stated before shutting off the comms. Marcus just sighed as he stood in the middle of the room, parade rest. _We can finally take the fight to him. We can stop Saren and destroy his base of operations in one go. I don't know what we can do about Sovereign, but we'll have to think of something. That superdreadnought can't be allowed to continue. It has to be stopped here; one way or another._

Marcus continued to wait in silence for a minute before the first of his team started moving inside; first inside was Ashley, followed by Kaidan, as they were both talking. When they took their seats, the door opened again to omit Garrus and Tali were talking animatedly about weapons; he could tell they were arguing about which weapon was better; sniper rifle or shotgun. Tali glanced at him for a second and he welcomed it with a warm smile before looking at the door again.

Liara, and then finally, Wrex walked in and sat down, the crew's conversation dying down as they saw that Marcus was moving forward to speak. Looking around the room, he nodded, noticing the silence, and began his debriefing.

"Just under a day ago, the Council received a distress call from one of their STG infiltration regiments in the Traverse," Marcus explained, "The call was little more than static, but they managed to track it to a planet called Virmire. They were investigating Saren's location." This caused Liara to gasp and a few others to stiffen in their seats.

"So your saying we finally found where the bastard is hiding?" Garrus asked.

"Possibly, we can't be sure, but most of the evidence points to yes. We'll land in the Mako, locate the regiment and then find a way to destroy Saren's base. I was orginally considering taking Saren into custody, but he's gone too far. When we find Saren, he dies," Marcus punctuated with his finger, "We'll also have to think of a way to destroy Sovereign."

This caused everyone to stiff up even more. Sovereign was monster by description and if the destruction on Eden Prime was anything to go by, they would need the entire turian fleet to destroy the monster. _Even that probably won't be enough. _

Liara raised her hand and Marcus nodded at her to speak, "Sovereign is an unknown variable, but do we know about the planet itself? We have no idea just how fortified Saren's base is."

Garrus nodded, "Saren's ruthless, but he certainly isn't stupid. He can't rely on secrecy to hide his base forever. He'll have half of the geth armada defending that place."

Marcus nodded as he answered, "The Normandy's stealth drives should allow us to sneak past any geth orbital patrols, but the geth ground forces will be a problem. We'll have to rely on the information of that regiment to tell us what's going on."

"If there's even a regiment left to rely on," Wrex added and everyone nodded. Marcus sighed as she spoke, "Due to the urgency of this mission, everyone will be going in heavy. I want everyone stocked up on grenades and any heavy weaponry we can find," Turning to Garrus he spoke, "Garrus, find Johnson, tell him I want any explosives he can find ready and put on the Mako, we'll be needing them." He then turned to Kaidan.

"Kaidan, I want you to assemble a meeting with the marines onboard and tell them that they'll be deploying upon my orders. We don't need them yet, but we might later." Marcus declared and Kaidan nodded. Tali immediately chirped in.

"Wait, we had marines onboard this whole time and never decided to have them accompany us on missions?"

Marcus simply shrugged, "We've never needed them, but now they're a necessity. Rest up, we have 15 hours before we reach Virmire. Crew dismissed." Marcus declared and the crew got up and left, all conversing about Virmire and the coming battle that was surely turning out to be big.

Keying his comms to the cockpit again, he speaks, "Joker, set a course for Virmire. The trip to the Perseus is now redundant. This mission is priority alpha. Activate the stealth systems as soon as we enter the Hoc system. Don't want to let the geth know we're there."

Joker's response was immediate and serious, "Copy that, Shepard. ETA to Virmire is fifteen hours. I'll inform you when we're there. Joker out." With that done, Marcus left the debriefing room and headed down the stairs to his cabin. He needed to rest up and get his armor ready for the coming battle.

Heading down the stairs, Tali ran up ahead to catch up with Ashley. Shouting the human woman's name, she turned around and smiled at Tali, turning back to Kaidan and telling him she'll talk to him later. Stopping to let Tali catch up, the two women walked into the mess hall and sat down opposite each other at one of the tables.

"So...Virmire huh?" Ashley stated, a look of amazement on her face.

"It has me...scared," Tali replied.

"Why?" Ashley asked, confused. This was meant to be an exciting moment; they were finally taking the battle to Saren. They were going to win.

"Because...well, you heard the chances. The geth will definitely have that place fortified heavily. What if we...you know." Tali stated in a soft tone, fiddling with her fingers as she spoke.

Ashley was about to ask what the woman meant when the realization suddenly hit her. _It's, by all fundamentals, a suicide mission. The chances of us surviving this are...slim. She's afraid of dying? I guess it's odd for her as she isn't a marine. I was prepared to die in battle from the day I joined. But her? She was meant to be back at her fleet by now._

"You're scared of dying?" Ashley asked, putting a comforting hand on Tali's hand.

"Yes..." Tali muttered, "I've never felt this kind of fear before. I don't know if I should be afraid of dying or not. I mean, I have nothing to live for. My father neglects me and my mother's dead. But then there's...there's..." Tali choked up. _No, keep that a secret. I don't want Shepard to think I'm announcing our relationship to everyone. To think I'm...being a braggart._

"There's what? Come on, I already know who you're fighting for..." Ashley stated with a smile and a wink and Tali immediately started blushing heavily.

"You know...?" Tali choked out and Ashley just lightly laughed.

"No...but since I have such an award winning smile, I'm sure you'll tell me. Don't worry, us girls stick together. Noone else shall know. Not even Garrus," Ashley promised and smiled warmly at the quarian. Tali sighed, having to admit that Tali's smile really didn't make her feel better. It was so full of happiness that she couldn't help but feel enlightened by it.

"Shepard and I...um...how do I say this..." Tali began to explain but Ashley's disappearing smile and look of shock caused her to stop. Ashley knew what she meant and it was obvious she didn't approve, "Yeah, it's like that."

"Damn! I always thought it was Liara..." Ashley added, her smile returning, "I never thought he would fallen for you! I'm happy to hear that Tali! But, out of curiosity, how is that going to work?" Ashley asked, trying not to sound rude or intruding, "I mean, you're a quarian, wouldn't taking your suit off..."

Tali felt her cheeks heating up once again as she answered, "It, um, will take time, but I'm certain I can do it. There is nerve stim programs, but I want it be to real. I want it to be like the way humans do it. I don't want him to feel like he's missing out on anything." Tali added with a lower tone and Ashley just chuckled and shook her head.

"If there's anything you shouldn't worry about, it's that," Ashley declared, "I think he'd willingly sacrifice sex just to be with you Tali. The man means what he says. He wants you and noone else. Well, at least I hope it's like that. Just make sure you don't make your relationship public." Ashley added in a whisper.

"Why?" Tali had no intentions in doing so, but she wondered why Ashley didn't want her to.

"Well, you might find yourselves on the cover of Fleet and Flotilla 2." Ashley stated and Tali felt a smile creep across her face.

"Fleet and Flotilla!? I loved that movie as a child!" Tali said a little too loudly, and everyone looked towards her as if she was crazy before going back to they're food and drink.

"Suit yourself. I'd keep it secret if I were you," Ashley said with a wink as she took a sip of her drink, not caring that she hadn't even gotten one.

"You won't...tell anyone, will you?" Tali asked, moving closer so only Ashley could hear her.

"Girl, that secret is mine till I die," Ashley declared, "My lips are sealed, not even Kaidan will know." Ashley stopped, noticing her own slipup.

"I'm not the only one with secrets," Tali said, liking how the tables had turned, "Come on, spit it out. You and Kaidan are together aren't you?" _Is this the ship for romance? Next you'll have Garrus and Liara and...Keelah, this was originally a warship, wasn't it? Now it's...the loveboat?_

Ashley gulped down her drink as she looked for ways to escape but, finding none, finally gave in, "It's a work in progress. But if I promise to keep my lips sealed about you and Shepard, you have to keep quiet about me and Kaidan, okay?" Ashley watched Tali very closely to make sure she had drawn her point across.

"Vocalizer is muted." Tali stated and the two of them began talking about things that women liked to talk about. Tali and Ash were able to enjoy it as it lasted. In 15 hours, it would be all hands on deck.

_And all fingers on detonators. _Tali added.

**{Loading...}**

_July 8, 2183_

_0416 hours. _

_1.2 kilometers from Gatehouse One, Eastern Perimeter, Geth Fortress, Virmire. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

The Mako landed with a resounding thump as it rolled across the water covered surface, the Normandy rocketing by as it reentered the atmosphere. Joker's acknowledgement of take off was barely heard by them as the sound of the planetary cannon went off; the sound rivalled that of a nuclear blast. He watched as the Normandy initiated a rolling evasion, the shot slamming past as the frigate continued to climb into the atmosphere.

With Garrus on the main gun, Marcus driving and Tali on her engineering console, Marcus spun the alliance vehicle around and immediately brought it around so they could drive down the riverbed and towards the first gatehouse; where he was sure the first of the planetary cannons resided.

The ride initially was mostly sight seeing and the sounds of the geth anti-orbital gun firing at the Normandy in orbit. Marcus had to admit that Virmire was a beautiful planet, even rivalling Eden Prime in its glory. The ground was mostly covered in water, but that was expected for a planet with a higher sea level. The planet was tropical, as could be told by the numerous trees and bushes surrounding the area. Unusual creatures lived on the planet; including the peculiar pod crabs.

So apart from those non-stop firing guns, nothing could be heard. The geth weren't aware of their presence yet, as they hadn't dispatched any forces to stop them. _That'll change when we reach the first gatehouse. _Marcus kept driving along and one point two kilometers later, they arrived at the first gatehouse, staying around the corner to remain out of sight.

"Garrus, what do you see?" Marcus asked, the turian being the only one to see the geth due to his position in the turret. He could hear the turian zooming in before answering.

"A gatehouse," Garrus deadpanned, "And a full squad of geth troops. A few juggernauts, some standard troopers and possibly a geth destroyer. Wait," Garrus waited for a second before continuing, "And we should expect a few hoppers. Damn things are like quarians on steriods. Uh, no offense Tali."

"Har har." Tali deadpanned as she rolled her eyes and Marcus just chuckled.

"Then let's open the welcoming party," Marcus announced, "Garrus, switch to explosive rounds and target the center. Upon your signal, I'll move in. Time to let them no we're here." Marcus looked up to see the colossal form of the geth cannon. It was huge; being 300 feet in heighter and utilizing the same geth design; very buggy looky. Another shot erupted from it's barrel, piercing the atmosphere.

The sound of the Mako's main gun firing broke him from his awe and he drove forward and straight towards the gatehouse. If the geth had been taken by surprise, they certainly didn't show it. Garrus had completely torn one of the three juggernauts apart in the first blast, but it didn't take long for the geth to regroup and retaliate.

The impact of a geth juggernaut's rocket hit the Mako and the vehicle shuddered, Tali moving to compensate as Garrus continued to fire upon the machines. Three more shots erupted from the Mako in a matter of five seconds; one impacting the juggernaut that had attacked them in the optics, another hitting a trooper and the final one hitting the same juggernaut in the legs, ripping it apart.

Seeing that the troopers had, quite stupidly, lined themselves up just outside the gate, Marcus hit the acellerator and smiled as at least five geth troopers found themselves crushed under the Mako's weight, the remaining geth forces retreating up the balcony. However, it was the hopper's turn. The four leapers of hell descended upon the Mako, but thanks to Garrus' excellen marksmanship, he picked them off like fish in a barrel.

Without waiting, he signalled Wrex and Kaidan to follow him outside, grabbing his rifle as he went. Hitting the hatch panel, he jumped outside, water soaking his leg joints. Sprinting forward, he let off a burst of suppression fire from his diamond back to keep a certain, very nosy, geth destroyer behind cover.

Wrex and Kaidan followed up behind him, all three of them glowing with biotics as they charged up the steps. As they hit the top, the destroyer made its appearence by firing a carnage into Kaidan, the soldier being flung back into the fence of the balcony. Luckily, the soldier had activated his tech armor upon leaving the Mako, and was perfectly okay.

Wrex immediately retaliated by charging into the geth platform, toppling it into the ground as he sent a flurry of biotic punches into it's optics. Marcus layed down cover fire on the approaching troopers and the last juggernaut and called Wrex into cover; who had finished ripping the destroyer apart and was now hiding behind cover, equipping his Solokov.

Smiling at the krogan, Marcus pulled out his punisher and nodded at Kaidan. The sentinel had primed a grenade and upon his commander's nod, threw it at the advancing enemy, the exploding sphere hitting the center of their flank. The device detonated, ripping apart a single trooper and leaving three others disabled. The final trooper tried to retreat, but it had been too close to Wrex's cover, causing it to be shredded by his shotgun. Marcus finished off the disabled geth with three, well placed sniper shots.

Leaving only the juggernaut, Marcus was about to use his biotics to shove it into a wall, but the report of the Mako's main gun caused him to stop as he watched the juggernaut get blown to pieces from the explosive round. Turning to the Mako and raising a thumbs up to thank Garrus, he motioned for Wrex and Kaidan to return to the Mako, the spectre then rushing up ahead to disable the geth cannon.

He heard it fire once more as he charged down the corridor, entering a circular room with geth control terminals displayed all over. A single, blue-lit, flashing core sat in the middle of the room, obviously serving as the cannon's power source. Without hesitation, he raised his spectre shotgun and fired, the core exploding and sending the spectre spiralling back several feet before crashing into the floor.

Looking up, he saw the core had stopped flashing, or ceased to exist for that matter, and he went outside to see that the cannon was now offline; the giant, mass-acellerator weapon no longer unleashing its deadly payload. Running back inside, he opened the gate and then returned to the Mako, reassuming the driver's seat.

"Great, now just one more gun to go." Garrus deadpanned, obviously getting tired of this already.

"And two more gatehouses. This just gets better and better." Ashley muttered under her breath.

"I'm sure it'll prove worth it in the coming fight," Liara added, checking her pistol as she then reseated it on the magnetic clamp on her side.

Marcus continued to drive the Mako through the gatehouse and out onto the other side. Seeing the minimap begin to beep, he turned to see that multiple contacts had been detected at about 50 paces, "Garrus, get ready, we've got company. I think we've gotten their attention."

"Good, more geth to destroy. Please let it be armatures!" Garrus pleaded as Marcus brought the Mako around the corner. The first lot of contacts had been located here. Marcus just laughed as they rounded the corner.

"Be careful what you wish fo-" He stopped himself as he saw just what they were facing. A single colossus sat in the middle of the canyon, three shock troopers escorting it. Upon spotting the Mako, the colossus reared up to fire a siege pulse, "SHIT!" Marcus then hit the acellerator like crazy and ran over two of the shock troopers, but also toppling the colossus in the process and causing it to fall over.

But he didn't stop there. Marcus just kept driving and the Mako eventually drove over the huge assault platform; crushing it's optics as it passed over. With the colossus destroyed, Garrus managed to blow apart the shock trooper before the Mako continued it's path towards the second gatehouse.

Most of the hostiles they encountered along the path towards the second gatehouse was assault drones, the occassional recon drone, a pair of armatures and a squad of shock troopers. To sum it up; low resistance. Marcus expected it to become much heavier as they approached the fortress. He could hear the thunder of the second geth planetary gun firing, although he knew they'd have to break through the second gatehouse to get to it.

When they reached the next gatehouse, the resistance was, surprisingly, lighter than the first. Marcus guessed that Saren might not have expected anyone to infiltrate the first and prepared it accordingly. The turian obviously hadn't planned on them when he was formulating his base's defenses.

From their position, they could see at least a squad of geth troopers, a couple of rocket troopers and a few krogan warriors were guarding the gatehouse. From their vantage point, Garrus opened fire immediately, taking one of the rocket trooper fully in the chest, ripping it apart on impact and causing the rest of the geth to act immediately.

The krogan were sloppy in their reaction, but when they did, they pounded fire on their position like wildfire. The rocket troopers and the combined fire of the krogan was enough to cause him to retreat as Garrus fired the main gun. The next few shots managed to destroy another rocket trooper, followed by a couple of krogan who had been foolish enough to charge the vehicle.

When Garrus had lightened the enemy fire enough, Marcus acellerated right back towards the compound, Garrus finishing off what was left of the enemy forces that was in his sights. Signalling everyon to stay put, Marcus leapt out of the vehicle, advancing up the steps and onto the second level. He saw the blasted remains of the gatehouse's defense force and continued down the corridor on the opposite side, finding himself in a room similiar to the last, just without the core of a anti-orbital cannon.

Opening the gate, he returned to the Mako slowly and carefully, managing to take out a rocket trooper that had managed to survive the Mako's onslaught. Once back in the Mako, he drove through the gatehouse and made best speed towards the third and final gatehouse. Most of the resistance on the way to this point had been mediocre had best, so he was expecting that Saren had the bulk of his reserves centered between them and the next gatehouse.

As the Mako continued to traverse the water-entrenched canyon, he was right. Resistance significantly picked up and in no time at all, they found themselves facing a colossus, two armatures, five assault drones and numerous rocket troopers. Garrus mostly concentrated his fire on picking off the rocket troopers, followed by the pesky assault drones.

While attacking them, the armatures managed to land in lucky shots on the Mako, draining it's shields twice before the Mako finally focused on them. Garrus' first warshot at them hit the armature dead center, causing it's shields to flicker and die and shrapnel to fly in multiple directions, leaving a gapping hole in its side. It quickly toppled over, followed by it's counterpart as it suffered a shot to the optics, blowing it's head clean off.

Now all that was left was the colossus infront of them. Marcus knew that if even one siege pulse from that monster managed to hit them, it would drain their shields in a single shot, and a second shot would leave the Mako as molten wreckage. Planning his evasions carefully, he managed to get the Mako in a position that allowed Garrus a perfect view of the geth's rear section. The colossus spun around to face the threat, but was too sloppy.

The main gun reported three times, landing three, clean shots on the colossus' back. One tore at the shields, a second destroyed them completely. The third hit the back of the colossus' neck, leaving a hole ripped through it's armor. Garrus took advantage of this and fired a fourth and final shot into it's neck, causing a huge explosion to take place. The geth's optics and neck flew into the air as the colossus' exploded, leaving debris scattered throughout the water.

"Well, that was easy-" Garrus didn't get to finish as the familiar sounds of an approaching geth dropship could be heard. As if on que, the vessel appeared over the canyon and reared it's forward guns on the Mako. It wasn't here to deploy troops, it was hear to terminate them.

"Never say that! Never, EVER say that!" Ashley chastised the turian as Marcus acellerated forward and back on track, causing the dropship to speed towards them in pursuit. The vessel decided not to take advantage of it's air maneveurability and ducked in low and flew through the canyon; giving Marcus an idea.

As the Mako shot through the canyon and dodged the dropship's missile bombardments, the passengers watched as the third gatehouse came into range. The sound of the geth cannon firing crossed out the sound of the geth dropship's engines as it flew through. Marcus smiled sadistically as he brought the Mako right under the checkpoint, where the geth vessel couldn't go.

The geth dropship noticed this and attempted to pull up, but the momentum it had gathered was too much and went crashing into the gatehouse, a resounding boom ringing through the Mako as the vessel slammed, hard, into the building. Without waiting to see what happened, Marcus motioned for Ashley and Garrus to follow him outside so they could disable the geth wargun.

As they advanced up the steps to the second level, they found it completely devastated. The crashed wreckage of the dropship could be seen stretched across the middle of the building; a sheared hulk, with the bow and stern sections seperated by the impact. The crushed remains of two asari commandos, five geth destroyers and at least a prime were stuck under the wreckage; all presumably dead or dying.

The middle of the structure had caved in on itself and the gatehouse structural supports looked unstable, meaning there wasn't much time. Racing across the wreck, Marcus moved inside and killed the two hoppers and krogan guards that guarded the room and, from a distance this time, destroyed the core, causing the gun to shutdown. Once flicking the controls and opening the gate was done, they moved outside.

Reentering the Mako and still smiling at the destroyed wreckage of the dropship, he was shaken from his victory by Tali calling out, "It's the Normandy," Tali stated and Marcus acknowledged her with a nod, hitting a button on the console to cycle Joker's voice through.

"I gather you've noticed that the guns are offline?" Marcus asked rhetorically.

"Copy that, Shepard," Joker responded, "I had to pull some insane maneveurs but the ship's fine. I'm bringing her in. I think I've spotted the salarian camp. I'm going to bring the Normandy down and try and see what's going on. They're currently half of a kilometer from the gatehouse."

"Solid copy, Normandy." Marcus responded.

"See you there. Normandy out." Joker's voice then disappeared from the comms as the gate finished opening and the Mako raced on out. The ride to the salarian camp was mostly uneventful, as the geth had either gone into retreat or hadn't bothered to set up troops in this location, but he didn't care. Sooner they got to the camp, destroyed this base, killed Saren and ended this war, the better he would feel.

Joker's voice entered the Mako once again, "Uh, Commander, we've got a slight problem." Marcus raised his eyebrows at that, passing a glance at Tali before everyone else. They all gave him the same, curious look; or he at least thought Tali did.

"Hit me Joker." Marcus responded.

"If what the salarian captain says is anything to go by, it looks like the Normandy is grounded. He'll explain to you once you get here. Better hurry though, I'm getting all lonesome."

"Don't worry, I've brought you company," Marcus grinned, turning to Wrex, "How does that sound Wrex? Feel like offering Joker some company?"

Joker's voice sounded almost afraid, "Wrex? Hell no! I don't want that bloodthirsty demon to keep me company! Why not...I don't know, Ashley! She's at least nicer and doesn't look murderous everytime I talk to her."

Ashley smugly grinned, "Keep dreaming, Moreau," the marine responded, "Skipper here wouldn't have me keeping you company if he promised me extra pay." Marcus laughed as he hit the comm to end the transmission, seeing that they had reached the camp.

Seeing that the salarian captain was clearly waiting for him and the Normandy next to what looked like the wreckage of a pretty large salarian vessel, he contacted the captain to tell him he will meet him once the Mako is parked. With that, he immediately drove towards the Normandy's open cargo hold.

**{Loading...}**

_July 8, 2183_

_0520 hours. _

_Salarian Base Camp, Crash Site of the Endeavour Dates, Eastern Perimeter, Virmire._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Captain Waui Kirrahe, Commander Osei Rentola._

"Ah! You must be Lieutenant Commander Shepard, the spectre that arrived," Kirrahe greeted, approaching the N7 as he entered and raising a hand for him to shake. Marcus smiled back at the salarian as he took his hand and shook it, releasing it once he reached the debriefing room.

"And you are?" Marcus asked, not sure he knew who the two salarians were.

"I do apologize," Kirrahe stated before introducing himself, "Captain Kirrahe, Third Infiltration Regiment, STG." Marcus nodded before turning to the second salarian in the room who also introduced himself.

"Commander Rentola, Kirrahe's second-in-command," Rentola introduced, bowing at the human and Marcus smiled at the formality, copying the bow as he got back up and surveyed the two salarians. Before he could say anything, Kirrahe spoke up, sounding oddly cheery, "So, when can we expect the fleet to arrive? Tomorrow?"

Marcus was taken aback by the question, but answered nonetheless, "No fleet's coming. We're it." This revelation seemed to cause Kirrahe to curse under his breath while Rentola just looked at the spectre with a stonish expression.

"You're it? You're all they sent?" Kirrahe asked, trying not to sound abrupt or rude. _I asked for a damn fleet! Not an alliance frigate!_

"Your transmission was mostly static, we couldn't understand it. They sent me and my ship to investigate," Marcus informed the salarians and Kirrahe rolled his eyes.

"That is a repetition of our task," Kirrahe declared, leaning forward and leaning on the table, "I lost a quarter of my men investigating this place," Kirrahe sighed, "But I guess I've got to go with what I have. However, this does change our...plans, back onto Plan B." Marcus noticed Rentola nod his head before turning to the salarian to ask his question.

"And what is that, exactly?" Marcus asked.

"Moot, for now," Kirrahe declared before standing up and moving to leave the bunker, nodding for Rentola to follow, "I must converse with my group commanders. Tend to your crew, commander. I will let you know when the plan is ready and whether it is valid." Kirrahe and Rentola then left.

Once gone, Marcus began to leave but stopped when he heard what sounded like a yell. Running outside, he saw one of the salarian soldiers laying on the ground, tossed there by...Wrex?

The krogan battlemaster stood before Kirrahe, he looked unfazed and just glared back into the krogan's blood-red eyes, while Rentola had a pistol raised at the krogan's head. Marcus, shaking his head, charged forward to help the salarian up and gain control of the situation.

"Okay, what the hell is going on here!?" Marcus growled as he came to a stop next to the krogan battlemaster and the salarian captain. Both of them continued to glare daggers as Wrex answered.

"One of the salarians mentioned that Saren was looking for a cure to the genophage," Wrex snarled, poking a finger into Kirrahe's chest, before flicking it back up and pushing Kirrahe back, "This pyjak wants to destroy it." Marcus had been surprised by Wrex's words and for a second, forgot all about the situation. _Cure for the genophage? The turian bastard was tempting krogan with a cure? That cruel hearted, son of a bitch. Luring krogan to him like a cat to yarn._

Kirrahe immediately retorted, "Saren is breeding an army of krogan out of tanks. He's essentially breeding them out of test tubes," He declared, "If the krogan get a cure, Saren will be unstoppable. And think of the consequences of a cure to the genophage! We cannot afford a second krogan rebellion. We cannot make the same mistake again."

Wrex growled aggressively as he shoved past the captain and stormed away, "We are not a mistake!" With that, the krogan left, almost bumping into Tali as he left. The quarian, noticing how angry her combat trainer was, decided to forget about requesting combat lessons and went instead, to help calm down the krogan, following quickly behind him.

Kirrahe snorted as he turned to the spectre, "Keep your krogan under control commander, we can't afford him killing my men over some false dream for a cure." Marcus wanted to tell the salarian to shut the hell up, that the krogan had endured enough pain and torment and deserved a cure, but he kept his calm.

"I'll deal with it, you just get to work on that plan of yours," Marcus wasn't looking forward to this. Reasoning with a krogan when they were set on doing something was damn near impossible and it was going to take him a miracle to accomplish it. Hell, it was going to take hashem's hand to make this work. _He was reasoning with a bloody krogan battlemaster!_

As he was approaching the krogan, he heard the sound of Wrex's solokov rip through the air, echoing throughout the canyon. He suddenly felt Tali at his side, shaking her head and out of air, holding onto Marcus' arms for support.

"I tried to calm him down! But he shoved me aside and said I couldn't possibly understand!" Tali pleaded but Marcus silenced her with a single finger to her vocalizer, "I'll handle it. Just...have your weapon ready. I...don't want to kill Wrex but it might come to that. Understood?" Marcus gulped.

Tali nodded, pulling out her armageddon shotgun and following behind Marcus to where Wrex was discharging his Solokov into the water. Marcus raised his hand for Tali to stop and looked at her to make sure she wouldn't follow. He didn't know how he could see it, but he could see a look of worry in her eyes. He nodded at her and then turned around and approached Wrex.

Stopping a mere meter away from him, he watched as Wrex let the weapon drop to his side, looking at the ground with a look of pure fury on his features. Marcus gulped heavily, he didn't move to equip his own shotgun as Wrex turned to face him; he knew Tali would do what's nessacary if he failed. He trusted her to do it.

"Kirrahe convinced you to talk to me?" Wrex snarled, glaring at Marcus directly.

Marcus crossed his arms, matching the krogan's glare eye for eye, "I came here on my own terms, Wrex. You should know that. We're on the same side." _At least I hope we still are. _Marcus scanned Wrex's features. His features just radiated rage, it couldn't be anymore painfully obvious. He tried to remain calm and cool.

"Are we? Saren's building a cure of my people, you want to destroy it." Wrex declared, leaning forward so his face was inches from Marcus', the spectre feeling the krogan's breath swath over his face, heated and dry. The krogan leaned back once again, daring Marcus to continue. He did so, riskily.

"Saren doesn't care about your people!" Marcus declared, leaning forward as well and pointing at the krogan, "It's not a cure, it's a weapon! Just like the rest of these krogan! They're not your people, Wrex!"

"How could you possibly understand? Maybe Saren's not the real enemy afterall," Wrex stated, turning back to face the water. Before he realized what was happening, Wrex snapped up his Solokov and raised it so it was literally tapping the spectre's forehead. He could see Tali, out of the corner of his eye, snapping up her own shotgun to face Wrex, "Maybe the real enemy is right infront of me!"

Marcus gambled for a choice of words. He had no idea on how he could salvage the situation. He was dead if he couldn't convince Wrex. Even if Tali fired her shotgun, Wrex would pull the trigger beforehand, rendering the defense moot. He sighed as he tried to think of what to do.

"Wrex, this is insane!" Marcus stated, noticing that a crowd was gathering. His team, the salarians, the marines and even Kirrahe and Rentola had gathered around, ready to defend the spectre if anything went wrong. Still not enough. Nothing was enough. He had to convince Wrex or he was as good as dead, "I'm not the enemy! WE'RE NOT THE ENEMY! Remember our talks? Remember how we'd talk about the krogan?"

Wrex seemed to falter for a second, but kept his aim true on the spectre. Marcus continued, "Remember how I recovered your family armor? I did it because I care about the krogan people Wrex! You have to trust me on this!"

Wrex shook his head, "Saren is willing to cure my people. You speak of trust, yet you've already breached it in wanting to destroy the last hope for my people! We're nothing! With this cure, my people can have a future again! We can regain what the salarian pyjaks took away from us!" He then turned to Tali, "We would rebegin anew! And all quarians would be welcome to live with us! How can I believe you know all the others that have thrown my people away like garbage!"

Tali made no comment but Marcus knew she had been shocked by the sudden gesture. He continued nonetheless, "A future as Saren's puppets! No trust has been breached!" Marcus shouted, his anger overcoming him as he grabbed Wrex's shotgun and wrenched it out of the krogan's strong grip, throwing it to the ground. The krogan bared his canine teeth as he glowed with biotics, stepping forward. Marcus matched him, also glowing with dark energy as he got ready to retaliate.

"Wrex, I have sympathy for your people, I really do," Marcus said, calming down but not letting his guard down. His biotics died down alittle, but they still showed, "I'm disgusted by how the Council has treated your race. The genophage is a war crime no race should go through," Marcus declared, matching the stares of every salarian surrounding them before looking back at Wrex, "But submitting to Saren will not gain you a new future. Or a cure."

Wrex's breathing calmed down, but he stayed firm, not yet convinced.

"Think of every krogan you've killed that's served under Saren's banner. That fought under Saren's cursed name," Marcus punctuated and Wrex seemed to ponder it, his eyes unfocused, "Did they seem natural to you? Did they seem like true krogan?"

Wrex shook his head.

"No, exactly! Because they were tank-breed! Grown from a bloody test tube! And if Saren can do that, imagine what he can do with a cure? Doesn't it seem like the perfect way to deceive the entire krogan race into serving under him? Fighting for his unorthodox cause because they were overoptimistic for a cure that he couldn't create?"

Wrex's biotics died off completely and he stood there, completely still, speechless to say the least. Marcus' biotics died off as well, allowing the spectre to think straight. _I did not just reason with a krogan. I didn't. I couldn't have. _Wrex then looked back at Marcus and sighed, holding his hand out for the spectre to shake. As soon as he took it, the krogan then brought it up into one of those brotherly handshakes.

"You're right, Shepard. We krogan have to think with our brains, not our hearts," Wrex declared, before embracing Shepard in a brotherly hug, "You showed me just what it means to truly be krogan. There won't be a cure anytime soon, but my people can at least be at ease knowing that one of our own helped take down Saren. Make that, two of our own." Wrex smiled a toothy grin as he released Marcus.

"Two?" Marcus asked, knowing full well what the krogan meant.

"Two. Now what the hell could we possibly be waiting for? We've got some turian ass to kick! And when we find him, I want to shove that cure right down his turian throat." With that, Wrex slammed his fists together, picking his shotgun and pushing through the crowd which was now dispersing.

Kirrahe approached him and whistled, "Commander, you're a miracle worker. I didn't think anyone could talk down a krogan, especially a human." Kirrahe stated, before correcting himself, "Uh, no offense intended."

Marcus chuckled as he held his hands up, "None taken. You should probably get back to your planning." Marcus then turned around and moved to talk with Tali, who now had her shotgun attached to her waist and was sitting on the shore.

Plopping down next to her, he began watching the horizon, watching as the sun of Hoc tried to break through the clouds, rising up to quell the night and inflict day upon the paradise world. After a few moments, Tali spoke silently, trying to not to ruin the calming effect of the sounds of the waves crashing against the sea shore.

"I used to dream of one day seeing a sunrise like this," Tali admitted, "As a child, it's all I thought about. It's...beautiful."

Marcus smiled, "Yeah, it certainly is. My mum used to take me to Earth and we'd go to the Gold Coast in Australia just to watch the sea. We'd always go at night where the amount of people would always be the lowest. I could never imagine anything so peaceful and full of solace. I think I was ten when she first started doing it. It was one of the reasons I joined the Alliance."

"You joined the Alliance Navy because of a beach?" Tali asked in a joking tone.

Marcus laughed lightly as he responded, "I know it sounds silly, but I guess I did it because I knew there were people who would want to ruin such peace, such tranquility. People like the batarians. I knew war was horrible but I needed to do what was needed to 'protect Earth and all her colonies,'" Marcus stated, quoting his drill sergeant at the end, "I never expected to...well, be here. To end up being a spectre, fighting genocidal machines and chasing rogue spectres."

"And meeting aliens who join your team?" Tali added.

"That to, although I never took that into account," Marcus said, "I mean, I knew aliens existed but I never thought I'd meet one, I've always worked alongside fellow marines." Marcus sighed lightly as he leaned back, letting his hands support his backward weight.

Tali smiled at Marcus as she also leaned back, copying his movement while also examining his unhelmeted features. He looked so, calm and peaceful, like he was content with life, like all was perfect. She realized now that maybe their possible imminent deaths possibly weren't something to fret, but to ignore. Because it was peace like this that were fighting for. Moments like this helped them fight stronger.

With that, she subconsciously made the first physical touch she had in their relationship; taking her left hand, she lay it ontop of Marcus' right, and just let it rest there. Marcus turned to look at her, a warm smile on his face as he turned back to look at the sunrise. It truly was beautiful; the glowing orange sun rose up to meet the night like knight-errand would his enemy, disspelling the darkness. Oddly fitting, considering the fight they would be facing soon enough.

Tali broke the silence as she spoke, "I've always wanted to see this sunrise from my homeworld. I always wanted to wake up in the morning, without this stupid suit and to feel the morning air on my skin. To watch the sunlight without this cursed visor. I was a silly girl with silly dreams back then."

Marcus shook his head, "That's not silly at all. That's called hope, something this galaxy is in desperate need of. You need to believe things can happen for them to happen." Marcus stated.

"I know," Tali sighed, "I just wish I could have had a childhood. One on a world my people could call theirs. One that didn't require us to be trapped in these ancestors be damned prisons." Tali indicated her suit and Marcus smiled warmly at her.

"I don't know," Marcus declared, "Maybe someday you'll be able to stand on Rannoch yourself."

Tali sighed, "Doubtful."

"I promise to make it happen." Marcus declared and Tali snapped her head around to look at him.

"You do realize it's one you might not be able to keep." Tali reminded him.

Marcus nodded, "God knows I know that, but what's wrong with hope? Besides, I have to give something to my girlfriend for her to hold onto, don't I?" Marcus smiled even wider as he said that. He hadn't been able to say that to anyone. He hadn't been a popular man during his younger years so he hadn't had many girlfriends. Tali was his first.

Tali smiled back at him, wishing she could just hug him. But she didn't want to do that in public. At least...not yet. Instead, she answered as softly as she could, "I know you will make it so Shepard. Keelah, I don't even know your first name. I guess I'm too used to saying 'Shepard.'"

Marcus laughed loudly, "Yeah, that's been the same with everyone. Only my mum really calls me by my first name, unless it's formality."

"You going to tell me?" Tali asked with a mischevious grin.

Leaning in closer to Tali, he whispered, "You can call me Marcus." Tali then burst out into giggles, leaving Marcus blushing.

"I know it's not exactly original, but it's better than John at least. That name's been used so many times I think it's warn out the people named after it."

"I don't know, I think John sounds pretty sexy." Tali flirted, not believing what she was saying. _First your a nervous wreck, now your okay? Wow woman, you are an enigma, aren't you?_

"Really? Good to know my name is appreciated." Marcus remarked and Tali just kept laughing as she pushed herself up, "Don't worry. I think 'Marcus' is reasonably sexy. I will have to work on saying it right. In private, that is. Now if you don't mind, I think I might talk to Ashley. It looks like you may have important things to discuss."

Marcus frowned before watching the quarian and turning to see Kirrahe and Rentola approaching him. Muttering an 'AH' before standing up, Marcus followed the two salarians into the command tent, where the plans for the attack were bound to start popping up.

**{Loading...}**

_July 8, 2183_

_0652 hours. _

_Salarian Base Camp, Crash Site of the Endeavour Dates, Eastern Perimeter, Virmire._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Captain Waui Kirrahe, Commander Osei Rentola, Master Sergeant Mordin Solus, Specialist Maelon Heplorn._

Marcus stood perfecty still as Kirrahe assembled his troops, his team and himself standing in parade rest as the other salarians did. As they lined up, he watched them as they were all suited up; their entire bodies covered in white armor and helmets, ready for battle. The Normandy's marine squad stood behind the salarian flank, also in parade rest. This was it, the moment of truth. This is where it all was going to end. Today.

Kirrahe had explained the mission parameters and Marcus had been impressed by the complexity of it. Upon mention of a salarian named Maelon, Kirrahe had mentioned the scientist had managed to use the energy based in the Endeavour Dates' drive core and convert it into a nuclear ordnance capable of wiping out a total area of six to seven kilometers. This would, effectively and utterly, wipe the geth fortress off the face of Virmire.

Kirrahe had split his regiment into four teams; Aegohr, Mannovai, Jaeto and Shadow. Shadow would infiltrate the western perimeter while the other three teams would unleash total fury upon the eastern perimeter, drawing away a large bulk of the geth ground and air defense forces, allowing Shadow an easier time in infiltration.

Shadow would disable all planetary cannons on their side while Kirrahe and Mannovai would disable guns they could on their side. With that objective complete, the Normandy would then land at the Breeding Facility and deploy the bomb, where Ashley was in charge of arming it. All forces would board the Normandy and once the bomb was armed, they would retreat to a safe distance before it exploded. Shadow would be Marcus and his team. Kirrahe, Rentola and the rest of the salarians would lead the frontal assault.

The only thing he didn't like about this plan was Kirrahe's final choice; without enough commanders to coordinate all three teams, as Kirrahe would command Mannovai and Rentola Aegohr, someone had to command Jaeto. After a long painful decision, Marcus had chosen Kaidan to lead Jaeto. He knew the soldier was strong and would be able to defend himself. Ashley had shown worry at the decision, but Kaidan had calmed her down. Kaidan now stood with his newly found comrades.

Without waiting much longer, Kirrahe stepped down the steps and began his speech.

"You all know the mission, and what is at stake," Kirrahe began, walking along the line of soldiers lined up before him, "I have come to trust each of you...with my life."

"But! I have also heard murmurs of discontent," Kirrahe declared, "I share your concerns. We are trained for espionage. We would be legends! But the records are sealed. Glory in battle...is not our way."

"Think our our heroes!" Kirrahe exclaimed, "The Silent Step, who defeated a nation with a single shot! Or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay with hidden facts."

"These giants do not give us solace here, but they are not all that we are," Kirrahe continued, moving back along his line of soldiers back to his original position, "Before the network, there was the fleet. Before diplomacy, there were soldiers!"

"Our influence stopped the rachni, but before that, we held the line!" Kirrahe exclaimed.

"Our influence stopped the krogan, but before that, we held the line!"

"Our influence _will _stop Saren, and in the battle today, we will hold THE LINE!" Kirrahe punctuated the end of his speech by holding his hands in the air and the salarians began to chant 'hold the line' as they began marching down the beach. Marcus moved to begin their journey to the western perimeter when Kirrahe's words stopped him.

"Good luck, Commander, I hope we will meet again." Kirrahe smiled at him before equipping his assault rifle, activating his tech armor and saluting the spectre, before running off to join his troops.

Marcus just smiled before moving up, "Let's move out!"

**"And so the battle for Virmire began."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"So it did. And one of us wouldn't be coming back."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**Lango: Seventy years in the future, Aeia 2175 is now known as Lango. I'm sorry for not elaborating on this in Chapter 22. :(**


	29. Chapter 23 Heart of Revelations Pt2

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:**

**HEART OF REVELATIONS PART TWO**

_July 8, 2183_

_0704 hours. _

_Perimeter Ground Communications, Eastern Perimeter, Geth Fortress, Virmire. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus grunted as he felt his feet come into contact with the ground; the spectre immediately raising his weapon to scan the immediate area before signalling the rest of his team to follow. Kirrahe had begun the assault a few minutes ago and the sounds of heavy fighting could be heard a kilometer away, along with the screams of salarians dying or shouting orders.

Nodded to his team as one by one they hit the ground, before then motioning for them to follow as he sprinted through the water encovered canyon. At first, they hadn't really encountered anything except more pod crabs, but that changed fast. Just as they were about to round another corner, Marcus motioned for them to halt as he spotted the communications center.

A single ramp lead up to a platform where numerous geth troopers stood guard near a communications panel. Guessing that this is where the geth stored most of their communications, he knew they had to destroy it. Not only would it sever the geth's connection to their troops, but it would also aid the salarian attack.

With two fingers, he motioned for Liara to follow him to the otherside of the building while Garrus, Wrex and Tali took the otherside. As Marcus and Liara quietly traversed the water until they reached the otherside, seemingly attracting only the attention of a single geth. Once it had rounded the corner though, Tali had zapped it with a hacking program and set it loose on the other geth.

Seeing his plan rendered moot, Marcus ordered his team to follow behind the geth as it attacked another troop patrolling the top of the ramp; the platform's pulse rifle ripping the geth apart as it tried to retreat while still advancing. The last three troopers dealt with the hacked unit quickly, but quickly followed it to the grave when Marcus' squad finished them off.

Marcus and the rest of the squad assumed defensive positions along the balcony as Tali got to work hacking the geth's communication's terminal. When she was done, she had not only shutdown their communications, but also inserted a virus that would falter the geth's efforts for a few short minutes. It would allow the salarians an easier time for a short period at best, but it was better than nothing.

"Commander, it looks as if the geth have gone into disarray," Kirrahe reported, "Alenko, take Jaeto and flank the geth's left! They've left their flank wide open! Solus, take care of those asari. Their geth allies are so distracted they've forgotten about us. Rentola, allow Mannovai a clear approach. Keep those geth snipers pinned!"

"We've disabled the geth communications captain, we're continuing on. Tali's inserted a temporary virus that will disrupt their defenses, but only for a few minutes. Don't get too hasty. Shepard out." Marcus then cut the comm and the squad continued down the canyon. The sounds of explosions and gunfire grew louder as they moved into the fortress, but still remained distant. A few geth fighters flew overhead as they moved past, along with the occassional dropship.

_Really should have brought Ash. _Ashley had remained aboard the Normandy so that when it landed, she could help them deploy the bomb and then arm it. The Normandy's marines had joined Kirrahe's charge, absorbing into Mannovai.

Apart from the occassional geth trooper, asari commando or even lone krogan warrior, there wasn't much to speak of in the way of actual resistance. That was until, they reached the Satellite Dish. As they took cover, they spotted two krogan warriors and a destroyer protecting the satellite dish that must have been responsible for base communications. Destroying this would make it impossible for the geth to alert them off their presence.

"Wrex," Marcus ordered, "Prep a grenade and throw it at that dish. Upon doing this, I want you to give those three everything you have. We're going to be alerting the base to our presence, but it's all we have." Wrex nodded as he pulled a grenade from his belt and primed, the rest of the group readying their weapons; Garrus training his sniper on the geth destroyer's optics while the rest of them targetted the krogan pair.

As soon as the battlemaster tossed it and it exploded, everything went to hell. The remains of the dish fell to the ground as the geth destroyer immediately retaliated, only to have it's head blown off by Garrus' sniper rifle. Liara's and Wrex's combined biotic assault, followed by Tali's unrelenting shotgun blasts left the krogan warriors unable to counter-attack as their regeneration couldn't heal them fast enough and they quickly fell down, dead.

The base alarms began to sound as the fortress quickly became aware of their presence.

"The geth forces seem discoordinated," Kirrahe added in, "The base alarms have sounded, what's going on in there-" Kirrahe was cut off by an explosion in which the salarian captain cursed at, a burst of gunfire being heard before his voice returned, "What's going on in there?"

"We had to take out the satellite dish the noisy way," Marcus reported, "The base is alarmed to our presence now but we've cut off base communications. It should make it hard for Saren's forces to coordinate their defense. Don't let up! We'll try to help you as best we can." With that, he cut the comms again as his team proceeded up the ramp and into the actual fortress.

They had engaged numerous response teams as they traversed the maze of bridges throughout the fort, but nothing of overwhelming value. It seemed that Saren's troops were really preoccupied with dealing with the salarians and weren't taking much notice of them. His fatal mistake.

It wasn't long before his team reached what looked like a launch area just outside the fortress' main structure, where the geth fighters apparently came to refuel. He could hear Kaidan's voice over the comm, "Damn it! Get down, incoming!" A large series of explosions could be heard before a response came through, "Belar's hit! The fighters are coming around for another pass. They'll have to refuel soon. Keep at it! Solus, you're flank is collapsing! Fall back and regroup on me!"

Marcus knew what he had to do. Those fighters would decimate the salarian attack quickly if he didn't stop them and luckily, he knew exactly how to. "Target the fuel canisters! Light this place up!" Marcus raised his rifle to fire. The place was being patrolled by assault drones and a few krogan, so it wasn't anything the explosion wouldn't handle.

With a single salvo of fire, the canisters lit up like a nuclear blast. A massive cascade of explosions ripped through the launch pad as drones were engulfed in fiery fury and krogan were tossed away like unwanted children's toys. When the smoke cleared and only fire remained, the destroyed remains of the launch pad were all that could be seen. He watched smugly as a geth fighter moved in to land, but seeing nowhere to land, was forced to retreat.

"The geth fighters haven't returned. Keep on moving, but watch the skies," Rentola ordered through ragged breathing as more explosions cut off the comms.

Moving through the passage and killing another geth guard, they hacked one of the door panels and headed inside. Whatever hostiles had been in the room were immediately dealt with as they stormed through the corridor. What followed could only be described as a large set of rooms that mostly served as offices and cargo areas.

What served as security in this area of the facility was pretty mediocre; a few asari and krogan guarded the place and for reasons he didn't quite understand; salarian STG agents. Had these been the soldiers Kirrahe sent in to investigate? If so, why did they attack them? _Indoctrination? Dear god, I'm hope not._

Within the space of a few minutes, it wasn't long before they found themselves on a balcony overlooking what looked to be a prison area of sorts. Lined up in cell blocks were the imprisoned forms of numerous salarian STG agents, including one specific one that was calling out to them.

Entering a nearby elevator, Marcus and his squad descended to the lower level and then approached the salarian.

"Who are you?" The salarian asked, visibly cautious.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy, Council Spectre. We're allies." Marcus declared, pointing at his crew.

The salarian let out a sigh of relief as he answered, "Finally, some friendly faces," The salarian stood up straighter, saluting him as he continued, "Lieutenant Ganto Imness, Third Infiltration Regiment, STG, at your service, sir." The salarian named Imness explained and Marcus nodded.

"I think Captain Kirrahe mentioned you as KIA in his report of this facility," Marcus stated.

"Me and my men were found and captured by Saren's troops and brought here," Imness explained, "I think Avot and his men may have been captured as well. Many of my troops were taken away. They came back and they were...different. They weren't themselves. It gradually got worser until eventually they just became the soulless husks you see before you."

Marcus turned to look at the salarians in the cells and indeed, as Imness said, they looked soulless. All of them stood in the middle of the circle; some looking blankly at walls, others mumbling unintelligible phrases. Whatever they were or had been was no more. They were, by all means, dead inside.

"They didn't inflict it on you?" Marcus asked, knowing that the salarians had been indoctrinated. The rest they had encountered must have also once been Imness' or Avot's men. Either way, they were beyond saving now.

"They might have been planning to, but this attack would have stopped that. Probably forgotten about me now," Imness explained before looking at their stares, "I'm not indoctrinated, I can asure. No voices in my head, no headaches, not even the slighest whisper. If you don't believe me I understand."

"No," Marcus declared before opening the cell and letting the salarian out, "I'm not leaving you here trapped like a dog." Marcus declared before unholstering his pistol and handing it to the salarian, "You can even help guide us through the base." The squad gave him nervous glances but they learned to trust his judgment. Imness simply nodded.

"If you will allow me one moment, Commander, I must put my brother's miseries to an end. They have endured enough. Let me end their agony." Imness pleaded and upon seeing Marcus' nod, opened the cell door. The salarians looked at him with blank expressions and didn't even move as Imness methodically gunned them down, one by one. When he was done, every salarian was dead.

"Saren will pay for what he has done here," Imness roared turning towards Marcus with a confident expression, "Blood will be shed to avenge my brothers-in-arms!" With that, Imness stormed past them, raikou pistol in hand as Marcus and his squad followed him, all of them entering the elevator and ascending back up to the balcony to continue to their mission.

"Kirrahe, I've found Imness. He's alive and well. He's accompanying us through the facility." Marcus informed the captain.

"Imness? Gods, I can't believe he's alive. What about Avot? Have you found him?" Marcus' answer was cut short as they were attacked by three more indoctrinated salarians, but Imness quickly dealt with them as they continued on, "Not sure, he may be among the indoctrinated. I'll inform you if we find him."

"Copy that, commander, Kirrahe out." The comms were disconnected as they continued and quickly found themselves in another a prison area and this time, hostiles were present. At least six to fifteen indoctrinated salarians had their weapons aimed at his team and among them, he gathered was what was meant to have been the leader.

Whoever it was, Imness recognized him immediately.

"Manos?" Imness asked but a horrified look met his eyes and he aimed his weapon at the salarian. Manos Avot was beyond saving. He had already succumbed to the indoctrination.

Avot let out a gurgled war cry as he and his brainwashed comrades charged forward, Marcus and his team letting lose with their weapons; the salarian's frail forms falling to the ground, one by one. When every salarian in the room was dead, Imness approached the dying form of Avot and emptied a pistol round straight into the salarian's forehead.

"Enter the night peacefully my friend." Imness muttered before storming back out, hacking a door panel as they exited the structure. A large ditch seperated their section of the fortress from the other section and they had to force their way through a large amount of geth forces to do that. After what seemed like an eternity of non-stop enemy onslaught, they crossed the bridge and across to a platform where the alarm seemed to be originating from.

Tali immediately raised her omni-tool to scan it and she squealed in delight, "Yes! We can disable the alarms and then retrigger them at the Northern perimeter. Not only will this clear the path for us, but it shoud lighten the amount of weight weighed down on the salarians." Tali informed him and Marcus nodded for her to do it. With that done, they preceeded into the depths of the base.

They had entered another cargo area stacked with crates and had the alarms not been disabled, they would have had a fight with a geth prime and twenty shock troopers on their hands. Luckily, however, this troops had vacated to the northern perimeter, leaving only two shock troopers, to which the team swiftly dealt with.

After about an hour of pushing further into the facility, they finally reached the breeding facility. Saren's lab was across a large steel bridge but on the other side of that bridge was a geth prime standing guard and two troopers. Signalling for Tali to snap out her drone, he moved forward and watched as Chiktika assaulted the prime, causing it to deviate from its position in order to pursue it, deploying its own drone in the process.

Behind it's back, Garrus and Wrex took down the two troopers with basically no retaliation on their part, allowing Marcus to use his biotics in flinging the prime over the edge of the facility, the geth platform tumbling into the sea below. Without waiting, Marcus opened the door and moved inside, weapon raised, his team close behind.

Only one person stood in the room; a single asari researcher.

"Please don't shoot! I'm unarmed!" The asari pleaded, raising her hands above her head and closing her eyes as if expecting the envitable. Marcus motioned for his squad to hold fire as he lowered his own weapon, but keeping it in a position that he could easily raise it again incase she tried anything.

"Identify yourself!" Marcus demanded.

The asari looked petrified as she answered, "Rana Thanoptis, Neurospecialist. I worked for Saren as a lab assistant..." She stopped as she Marcus' weapon snap up again but she immediately shouted her next words,"BUT I WAS WRONG! All the things he's doing here; it's unethical. But I had to what he said or he would have me indoctrintated as well."

Wrex snorted, "Typical asari cowardice." Liara shot a glare at the krogan, but dismissed his unintended insult at the young asari and turned back to Rana.

"I had no choice! I didn't want to but Saren would have killed me if I didn't!" Rana pleaded, looking directly into Marcus' eyes as she begged. With a quirky smile, he lowered his weapon and sighed.

"Go. Get out of here," Rana nodded and was about to leave when Marcus continued, "But if I even see you again, it will not end well. And run fast, because I'm going to sending this place to hell and gone. So...you'd better start running!" Rana looked completely shocked and lost for words, not expecting to hear what the spectre had just heard. He took sick pleasure in that.

"But I...I-OH!" Rana exclaimed as she shoved past them in her sprint to get away as far away from the fortress as she could. Marcus grinned even larger and Garrus must have seen this as he commented, "You enjoyed that." It wasn't a question, more like a statement of fact. He just grinned even wider.

Moving through the lab, they entered an elevator that descended into the main area of Saren's lab. Upon reaching their destination, the door opened and Marcus found himself in a room with a prothean beacon at the bottom. This one, like the on on Eden Prime, was also turned on and the spectre felt himself drawn to it as he descended the ramp and approached it.

His team wearily followed, not knowing whether they should stop him or not. When Marcus reached the beacon, he felt himself lifted from the air once more as the images clouded his mind once more. This time, the images were more vivid and clear, while also introducing ones he hadn't seen before. He watched as reaper warships clouded the skies and descended on prothean worlds like butchers to a pig's slaughter. The screaming was much louder.

And as usual, he witnessed hell itself as the image of Sovereign entered his mind, it's captain's words echoing through his mind.

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING.**

The images ended as Marcus crashed into the ground, his team rushing to help him. Once he had gotten back to his feet, it was of course, Liara, who spoke first.

"Did the beacon complete the vision?" She asked and everyone looked at her angrily. Marcus could have almost died and Liara would still answer the same question. The asari felt ashamed, but she had to know the answer.

"Yes. Look, we can talk about this later. Right now, we had a base to destroy." Nodding to his team, he picked up his discarded rifle and ran up the ramp back to the elevator but before he and his team could leave the lab, a hologram of Sovereign appeared, glowing crimson red.

**YOU ARE NOT SAREN. **

Marcus snapped his head towards Sovereign's hologram and immediately approached it, followed by his squad who looked at it in awe. Liara was the first to break the awkward silence as she asked.

"What is that? Somekind of VI interface?" The asari asked.

The sovereign's captain's answer was just as strong as its last enter; full of synthetic cacophony, its monotone loud and threatening, piercing and deadly.

**RUDIMENTARY CREATURES OF BLOOD AND FLESH. YOU TOUCH MY MIND. FUMBLING IN IGNORANCE. INCAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING.**

The crew's reactions were mixed; some were in awe, some in shock, some in terror. Tali's answer was one of all three.

"I don't think this is a VI."

**THERE IS A REALM OF EXISTENCE SO FAR BEYOND YOUR OWN YOU CANNOT EVEN IMAGINE IT. I AM BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION. I AM SOVEREIGN.**

In that short, painful sentence, it all became clear. Everything that had happened so far, all came to him in an instant. His awe and shock were replaced with complete terror as he eyed the montrosity that truly was beyond his comprehension.

"Sovereign wasn't just some reaper ship Saren found...it's an actual reaper." Tali and Liara gasped while the others visibly stiffened at the revelation. Saren had found an actual reaper. What he was talking to wasn't Sovereign's captain, it was the ship itself. Sovereign was ALIVE.

**REAPER? A LABEL CREATED BY THE PROTHEANS TO GIVE VOICE TO THEIR DESTRUCTION. IN THE END, WHAT THEY CHOOSE TO CALL US IS IRRELEVANT. WE SIMPLY...ARE.**

Tali's voice rose up before Marcus could even open his mouth, her words full of disbelievable and discontent and what she was seeing.

"The protheans vanished fifty thousand years ago! You could not have been there, it's impossible!" The quarian shouted, pointing her finger accusingly at the hologram. Sovereign barely fazed; no eyes were present to look at the quarian. It simply spoke in the same, unchanging, monotone voice of synthetic nightmares.

**ORGANIC LIFE IS NOTHING BUT A GENETIC MUTATION. AN ACCIDENT. YOUR LIVES ARE MEASURED IN YEARS AND DECADES. YOU WITHER...AND DIE.**

**WE ARE ETERNAL. THE PINNACLE OF EVOLUTION AND EXISTENCE. BEFORE US, YOU ARE NOTHING. YOUR EXTINCTION IS ENVITABLE. **

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING.**

That caused something in Marcus to tug, to make him glare directly at Sovereign. _We are the end of everything. His, it's, exact words during my visions. _This giant sentient dreadnought might call itself the pinnacle of existence, but he was going to listen. Sovereign had to be stopped; for the safety of the galaxy, the reapers had to be stopped.

Stepping forward, he chose his next words carefully.

"The galaxy is united and ready to face you. We will not allow you to wonder in unchallenged. You will be stopped."

**CONFIDENCE BORN OF IGNORANCE. THE CYCLE CANNOT BE BROKEN.**

It was Imness who stepped forward this time, his body radiating of worry and concern as he asked his question in a shaky voice.

"Cycle? What cycle do you speak of?" Imness asked, confused Sovereign's words.

**THE PATTERN HAS REPEATED ITSELF MORE TIMES THAN YOU CAN FATHOM. ORGANIC CIVILIZATIONS RISE, EVOLVE, ADVANCE. AND AT THE APEX OF THEIR GLORY, THEY ARE EXTINGUISHED.**

**THE PROTHEANS WERE NOT THE FIRST. THEY DID NOT CREATE THE CITADEL. THEY DID NOT FORGE THE MASS RELAYS. THEY MERELY FOUND THEM. THE LEGACY OF MY KIND.**

And so another revelation is unfolded. _So it wasn't the protheans who built the Citadel or Mass Relays, but the Reapers? _Everyone took a moment to process this information. It was alot to take in, but Marcus was confused as to why Sovereign would answer these questions. It was confident of it's victory, that much was certain. But one question still lingered on his mind...

"Why would you construct the mass relays, then leave them for someone else to find?" He asked. It made no strategical sense. _Why give your enemy an impenetrable fortress city-station and machines that could help them get across the galaxy quickly? Was it to give them a challenge? This makes no sense!_

**YOUR CIVILIZATION IS BASED ON THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE MASS RELAYS. OUR TECHNOLOGY. BY USING IT, YOUR SOCIETY DEVELOPS ALONG THE PATHS WE DESIRE. **

**WE IMPOSE ORDER ON THE CHAOS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. YOU EXIST BECAUSE WE ALLOW IT, AND YOU WILL END...BECAUSE WE DEMAND IT.**

Liara yelled out in total horror at what she discovered, "They're harvesting us! Letting us advance to the level they need, then wiping us out!" Wrex simply eyed the hologram with a rapidly narrowing glare, obviously not impressed by the reaper.

Marcus shook his head as he stepped forward until he was inches from the hologram.

"What do you want from us? Slaves? Resources?"

**MY KIND TRANSCENDS YOUR VERY UNDERSTANDING. WE ARE EACH A NATION. INDEPENDENT, FREE OF ALL WEAKNESS. YOU CANNOT EVEN GRASP THE NATURE OF OUR EXISTENCE.**

"Then where did you come from? Who the hell built you?" Marcus demanded.

**WE HAVE NO BEGINNING. WE HAVE NO END. WE ARE INFINITE. MILLIONS OF YEARS AFTER YOUR CIVILIZATION HAS BEEN ERADICATED AND FORGOTTEN, WE WILL ENDURE.**

Marcus felt a smile tug at his smile, "Where are the rest of the Reapers? Are you the last of your kind?"

**WE ARE LEGION. THE TIME OUR RETURN IS COMING. OUR NUMBERS WILL DARKEN THE SKY OF EVERY WORLD. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR DOOM.**

Marcus just snorted and raised a dismissive hand, walking away as he spoke.

"You're not even alive, not really. You're just a machine. And machines can be broken."

**YOUR WORDS ARE AS EMPTY AS YOUR FUTURE. I AM THE VANGUARD OF YOUR DESTRUCTION. THIS EXCHANGE IS OVER.**

Turning around, he saw Sovereign's hologram wink out of existence and instead replaced with a ear piercing synthetic screech as the windows of the lab all exploded and rained glass shards on them. He felt the base begin to shake as if an earthquake was occuring but as soon as it had begun, it stopped. Then came Joker's voice over the comm.

"Commander? Talk to me! We've got trouble! Come on, answer me damn it!" The pilot asked in rapidfire and Marcus immediately keyed his comm.

"Hit me, Joker."

"That ship, Sovereign was it? Yeah, well I think his hibernation period is over. I don't know what you did down there, but he just rose out of the base like a spider coming out of a hole and pulled a turn that would have sheared any of our ships in half." Joker explained, "I also think it has an extreme interest in finding you. Better wrap things up in there, fast!" With that, Joker cut the comm.

Marcus nodded before moving back towards the elevator, "Everyone, move! We've got to deploy that bomb before Saren and Sovereign figure out what we're up to!" The elevator ride back up was silent apart from the sounds of battle occuring not too far away.

"Commander," Kirrahe keyed on the comm, "Where are you? You didn't show up so we've disabled most of the AA Guns. It's up to you to disable the final gun, located in the breeding facility. We've taken up a defensive position just outside the main facility. We'll meet you there."

Marcus nodded before answering, "How many made it Kirrahe?"

There was silence over the comm aside from the gunfire before an answer came through, "Not enough, Shepard. Rentola took a shot to the leg and Solus is being treated for a chest wound. I've taken a few scrapes and bruises but Staff Lieutenant Alenko is fine. Only fifty of us made it to this point." Marcus cursed under his breath. _Only fifty? Just think of how many of them died..._

"Hold position, Kirrahe, just hold on. We'll clear the pathway for the Normandy then we'll come and get you."

"Counting on it, Commander. Kirrahe out." With that, the comms went silent once more as they exited Saren's lab and crossed the bridge into the main breeding facility itself. Upon above, looming over the geth fortress like the demonic demon from the pits of hell; was Sovereign. Seeing it on video was one thing, seeing it up close though.

The reaper cast a deathly shadow over them, it's monolithic two kilometer bulk easily eclipsing any dreadnought or carrier ever produced. It would take the firepower of an entire fleet to take it out. Pulling his eyes from the monster vessel, he turned them to the other side of the facility just in time to see a large group of krogan warriors, lead by an indoctrinated battlemaster, heading straight for them.

**{Loading...}**

_July 8, 2183_

_0910 hours. _

_Spaceport, Breeding Facility, Geth Fortress, Virmire. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Captain Waui Kirrahe, Commander Osei Rentola, Master Sergeant Mordin Solus, Specialist Maelon Heplorn._

Pained screaming was heard as two more salarians were ripped from their cover as a colossus' heavy siege pulse hit their position with the force of MAC round slamming into a cruiser's hull. They were completely vaporized by the blast as the colossus continued to advance. Kaidan once again poked his head out from cover and took aim at the colossus peppering its shields with a burst of fire before ducking again.

The perputual barrage of pulse rifle fire continued to erupt over their heads; endless streams of high-velocity bullets piercing the air and striking at them like vultures to the hunt. The colossus towered over them like a goliath, ready to come down upon them with the arsenal fitting of a heavy tank. The chances of their survival were slim.

"Staff Lieutenant," Kirrahe shouted over the roar of the enemy fire, "That colossus has to be dealt with now. We don't take it out and we'll be slaughtered!" Kaidan nodded irritatingly and motioned for two of the Normandy's marines to take out the two shock troopers attempting to flank them. The marines did as ordered, popping out to deal with the troopers before retreating back behind cover.

An explosion of gunfire to his right caught his attention as a salarian trooper had charged the colossus, firing everything it had into it's shields before being ripped to shreds before the combined fire of six advancing geth primes.

Kaidan cursed his luck as he keyed his comm, looking at his chrono. _It'll take them forty minutes to get here. We'll be dead by then. We need to fall back. Holding this position is goddamn suicide. _He looked back at the AA gun tower they had just retreated from and keyed Kirrahe on his comm.

"Tell me you have a good plan, Staff," The salarian captain asked, his breathing ragged.

"No miracles, I'm afraid," Kaidan responded before pointing towards the gun tower, "We can't hold this position any longer! They'll overwhelm us if we try to stay here. Our best chance is to retreat to the gun tower and hold there. The colossus can't follow us!" Kirrahe looked at the gun tower and cursed under his breath.

"Damn it," Kirrahe hesitated before answering, "All surviving squad leaders, initiate fall back order, effective immediately. Methodical retreat to the gun tower. All units, full retreat! I repeat, full retreat!" Rentola and Solus' responses were immediate, the salarians rounding up what surviving troops they could and slowly falling back to the geth cannon. Kaidan lead the marines out last, following quickly behind them.

When they reached the gun tower, they saw that they were effectively boxed in. The only way out was the way they came and the elevator which had been disabled by Saren to block their escape. They watched as a seething mass of geth troops converged on them, everything from geth primes and juggernauts, to simple less advanced destroyers and troopers. He could also see what looked like a couple of the husk like creatures from Eden Prime also heading for them. The colossus lagged at the back, firing at the room's walls in an attempt to break in.

From his position, he could also see a squadron of geth dropships deploying additional reinforcements. Kaidan's grip tightened on the stock of his weapon; the soldier was prepared to die. The odds were pitted against them; the full might of two geth divisions were converging on the tiny remnants of what barely made a company. Shepard wouldn't save them in time. They would be overwhelmed in a matter of minutes.

But he knew what he had to do; he had to give them more time. Dropping behind the nearest crate, he watched as Kirrahe, Rentola and Solus dispositioned their troops around the room, while Kaidan ordered his marines to take position next to him and Kirrahe at the back. Glowing with biotics and illuminated by his tech armor, Kaidan awaited the oncoming onslaught of geth forces.

He thought about Ash. The woman he had met on Virmire; the racist he had first resented, but had then come to have a deep friendship with and eventually; love. Kaidan was alien to the concept, even having loved Rayna at some point, but he had gotten over that and he knew that when the war was over, he had been going to tell Ash his feelings.

But now that probably wouldn't happen. He was going to die here, but at least Ash wouldn't die with him. She would be safe, far away from Virmire as the nuclear blast destroyed the entire base, and him with it. He was so tempted to just contact her over radio and tell her how he felt for the last time. But could he do it? Could he subject her to that kind of psychological torture? She was going to be heart-broken as it was. She didn't need him contacting her to make it any worse.

So instead, his channel to her remained silent. He peeked up and watched as the first geth arrived and also saw that two more colossi had joined the first, along with an additional three armatures. Death was certain. Such odds were unbeatable. Undefiable. He hadn't found the closure he wanted in life; he hadn't said goodbye to his parents, to his family, to the commander that gave him a purpose or to the woman he loved. Or maybe...it was meant to be like this. Going out in the blaze of battle. Maybe this was how it was meant to be.

Well, he certainly wasn't one to battle destiny. But he sure would meet it head on.

Summoning a deep breath through his nostrils, Kaidan raised his rifle and announced the order to counterattack. Everyone immediately opened fire on the geth, rounds piercing the air as they hit their intended targets. Kaidan knew he would die here.

_But I'll die a hero._

**{Loading...}**

_July 8, 2183_

_0732 hours. _

_Droyas' Laboratory, Eastern Perimeter, Geth Fortress, Virmire. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Lieutenant Ganto Imness._

When the door to the elevator finally opened, Marcus immediately stepped out, Diamond Back raised and checked the immediate area. They were nearing the salarian position and would be there soon. They had recently disabled the final AA gun and all that was needed was to reach the bomb site and deploy it, plus extract.

Taking point, his team quickly fell in behind him, Tali being right behind him, defending his flank as did the rest of his team. Imness lagged behind to defend the rear along with Wrex, both of them swapping glares at almost every passing moment. According to the base schematics, this was Doctor Droyas' lab, where the supposed 'cure' for the genophage was being developed.

As they turned a corner and entered the facility, they found that they weren't looking for a genophage cure at all; they were researching husks. The research lab was forty meters in length and ten meters in width, with numerous research setups all over the place, along with neuroscanners that housed conscious husks inside. Numerous research personnel moved around, ranging from asari to turians. Only one krogan was in the room; Doctor Droyas.

"This isn't a cure! This is an abomination!" Wrex shouted in rage as he pushed past them, Solokov in hand as he stormed towards Droyas. Hearing him, the asari and turians fled in fear at the sight of the attacking krogan and when Droyas turned to see what was going on, he was just in time to see Wrex's Solokov shoved under his chin before his head was blasted into a pulp in a single trigger pull.

Looking Droyas' dead body on the ground, Wrex huffed, "Disgraceful." Wrex looked at the numerous asari and turians cowering in the corner but as he was about to raise his shotgun, he suddenly let it fall back to his side. _I'm not capable of murder. _With that, the battlemaster headed straight for the neuroscanners and began destroying them, one by one.

None of the husks survived Wrex's onslaught as he systematically destroyed their holding pens and by the time he was finished, the lab was a wreck. Returning to Marcus with a large grin on his face, the spectre rolled his eyes and let the scientists escape before entering the opposite elevator and descending into the heart of the breeding facility.

Keying his comm, he spoke just as the door opened to reveal numerous geth troopers led by a single prime and numerous geth troopers, taking cover almost immediately as pulse rifle shots struck at their original location.

"Normandy, this is Leonidas," Marcus stated, "All guns are disabled, you are cleared for approach. We'll clear the landing zone." Finished, Marcus waited for Joker's answer as he ordered Wrex and Liara to pound the prime with biotic attacks while the rest of them dealt with the geth. Imness managed to land a square headshot on one of the platforms before being shot in the shoulder and forced to slip into cover.

Just as Marcus went to join the biotic assault on the prime he felt a shock enter his body as he was electricuted by the prime's combat drone. Turning around, he used the butt of his rifle to push the drone away before laying a burst of fire on it that caused the drone to explode. Before the prime could summon it back, he stepped on it and crushed it.

However, the drone's attacks had drained his shields, leaving him vulnerable to the pulse rifle round that took him in the left shoulder. Grunting in pain, Marcus lowered himself back under cover as he allowed the armor's systems to apply medi-gel. Noticing that his armor's injectors had also been disabled by the drone, he raised his omni-tool to apply medi-gel only to have Tali appear at his side and apply it herself.

"The prime..." Marcus groaned through the pain. Damn those pulse rifles packed a punch.

Before he could finish that sentence, he heard the mechanical screech of the prime before it exploded, the sounds of it's debris raining all around them. Smiling, he already knew the answer to that. Allowing Tali to finish applying the medi-gel before he stood up, he and his team pushed forward into the heart of the facility.

This area was essentially a artificial river; water flowed freely through the metal canyon of breeding tanks as it fell into the sea below, a waterfall below. There had been evidence of geth patrols here, but they must have been drawn off by the salarian assault. Before he could say anything, he could hear the recognizable sounds of an alliance stealth frigate's stealth drives disengaging.

Looking up, he watched the Normandy descend from the atmosphere as it shot towards them. In next to no time, it had slowed down and beared down on them, Sovereign's form looming behind it, apparently not noticing it. Apparently Sovereign wasn't even defending the base; just like Eden Prime, it was ascending into Virmire's atmosphere.

It wasn't long before the Normandy finally landed, the cargo hold doors opening as Johnson and Ashley drove the Mako out of the hold, carrying the Endeavour Dates' drive core with it. When the Mako had reached the middle of the river, it stopped and unlatched the cables, Ashley leaping out of the vehicle as Johnson reversed it back into the cargo hold.

Ashley smiled as she approached them, "Did I miss anything? You didn't kill too many geth without me, did you?" Marcus grinned as he patted Ashley on the shoulder and the two of them moved towards the bomb, his squad following behind them. The sounds of battle were very close now; just above them actually.

As they reached the bomb, Ashley crouched down next to it as she began arming it, "This is going to take a few minutes. Salarians handled most of the hotwiring, but I have to do the final trial runs. Won't take much longer than five." Satisfied with the time given, Marcus nodded and motioned for the squad to follow him towards a blast door that would take them to Kaidan's location. Meanwhile, the Normandy lifted itself from the facility and took off again, not wanting to risk Sovereign coming back and taking them offguard.

"Sentinel, this is Leonidas, what's your status?" Marcus requested.

"This is sentinel!" Kaidan shouted into the comm, cursing as he raised his rifle to take a pot shot at an approaching destroyer, "We were being overwhelmed! We had to fall back to the gun tower. We're boxed in and the geth have us trapped. There is no way in hell we're going to survive, commander. Just arm the bomb and go!"

"That's a negative Alenko, noone gets left behind. We're coming to you. Rough estimates of force size?"

"You want an estimate? How about the whole goddamn rannochian army! We've got primes, colossi, armatures, drones, dropships, troopers, juggernauts, you name it! It's like a bloody persian army over here! We can't hold them off much longer! Fatalities are forty two and rising. Rentola's in critical condition and Kirrahe's getting suicidal. If you're going to do something, do it bloody fast!"

Nodding, Marcus cut the comm and ran as fast as he could. Tali made short work of hacking the door and in no time, they were on the other side. A squad of krogan warriors were there in force, but thanks to surprise, the krogan never saw them coming and were put down quickly before they entered an elevator at the end and ascended the second level. _Saren certainly loves these damn elevators._

Having an idea at how to lower the playing field, Marcus contacted the Normandy, "Normandy, this is Leonidas, come in please."

"Normandy here." Was Joker's reply.

"We need an immediate airstrike at the gun tower. Recommend Javelin Torpedoes, danger close, how copy?" Marcus requested.

"Where at the gun tower?" Joker asked.

"You'll know where when you see it." Marcus answered enigmatically.

"Solid copy. Normandy is inbound. Airstrike in ETA ten seconds, danger close." Marcus quickly warned Kaidan and the salarians just as the Normandy moved in.

Joker, in the pilot seat of the Normandy, now saw what Shepard meant. The gun tower was, quite literally, completely hidden by the horde of geth all over it. He smiled as he prepped three javelin torpedoes and the GARDIAN defense systems, ready to unleash hell on the geth, his first targets; the heavy hitters up back.

Once the Normandy's VI had a lock on, Joker unleashed hell upon the geth rear flank as three javelin torpedoes struck rear of the geth flank; the colossi being ripped to pieces by the heavy ordnance and the armatures torn to shreds. A large mass of juggernauts and primes were next to follow as the frigate's GARDIAN lasers ripped into them, cutting them up like butter on a hot plate. One by one, the geth forces were cut down like flies.

Six geth dropships made an appearence and fired upon the Normandy, but their attacks were rendered moot by Joker's piloting abilities.

"You shooting at my baby? Never shoot my baby!" Joker remarked as the GARDIAN's unleashed fiery fury back at the geth vessels. And just like the geth on the ground, they're shields were pierced and their armor vaporized as the frigate's defenses destroyed the dropships like so many lamb to the slaughter.

With a smile on his face, Joker raised a middle finger at the geth horde as the Normandy took off once more into the atmosphere, leaving the geth a disorganized heap of troops. The geth eventually decided to fall back and regroup, as their attack had lost cohesion and they needed to resurge. He also had a strange feeling that they were awaiting reinforcements.

Marcus, taking the initiative, lead his team towards Kaidan and the salarians while the geth were regrouping. It wasn't long before they reached the gun tower and Kaidan gave a sigh of relief. He could see Rentola leaning against a crate with a salarian medic tending to him, his wounds looking very bad. Kirrahe's armor looked battered and torn while Mordin and Maelon looked in prime condition, aside from a few injuries here and there.

Kaidan had taken a shot to the shoulder and his foot and looked to be barely concealing his pain, but he was holding up, "Kaidan, holding up. Come on, we need to get back to Ashley's position and get the hell out of here." Kaidan nodded as he approached Kirrahe and Rentola, Marcus taking the time to contact Ashley and let her know they were heading back.

"Ash, this is Shepard, we're heading back now. Radio the Normandy and prepare for extraction. I hope that bomb is ready." Marcus ordered.

"It's-" An explosion immediately cut her off as gunfire could be heard, "Shit!" Ashley cursed as the splashing of water could be heard; she was relocating.

"Delta, what the hell is going on!?" Marcus demanded.

"Geth dropship! It's bleeding geth all over the landing site! I can't hold them off! They've got a prime!" Another gunshot could be heard followed by a grunt of pain, "Shit!"

Hearing Ash, Kaidan immediately came running to Marcus' side, but a single raised hand silenced him.

"We're coming to you. Hold on." Marcus informed her.

"Not you're not!" Ashley declared, "I've already armed the bomb! It's going to go off in half an hour. Take Kaidan and the salarians and get the hell out of here!" Ashley requested and Kaidan couldn't take it anymore. Keying his comm, he hacked into Ashley's transmissions.

"Ash, what the hell do you think you're doing!?" Kaidan demanded.

"My job," Ashley responded simply, "Get to the Normandy and get out of here! There's no way you can save me and escape in time! Just...remember me." Marcus felt his head droop in sadness as he realized Ashley was right. There was nothing they could do for her. He realized this was like losing Roshia on Elysium all over again. This time however, he wasn't there to witness it.

"Copy...that." Marcus stated before forming another link to the Normandy, "Joker...pick us coordinates to you...now." Marcus said with slight hesitation, hoping for something to happen that would change what he had to do. Nothing happened. No miracle was coming to help them.

Kaidan immediately snapped his head to look at Marcus, "You can't just leave her! We can still save her!" Kaidan pleaded but seeing Marcus equally sad look, he knew that Marcus wasn't doing this because he had given up. He did this because Ashley was requesting it. This wasn't about being unable to save her, this was about sacrifice.

Going back to Ashley's channel, he asked in a low tone, full of melancholy, "Ash...why?" Kaidan asked.

Ashley's answer was just as low, "I...I need to do this Kaidan. If I don't, who will? This bomb has to go off. The geth could disarm it if we leave before it detonates. You know this is how it has to end. The Alliance has to realize that my family has a purpose. I'll die a...proud member of the Williams family."

"Damn it, Ash. I, I love-" Kaidan didn't get to finish as Ashley interrupted him.

"I know, and I do to. Remember me." Ashley finished and cut her comm and Kaidan just stood there, shocked by what he heard. This couldn't be the end. It just...couldn't. Tali looked equally sad; she was going to lose a great friend. But she knew this was the way it had to happen. With renewed vigor, the crew helped their salarian comrades get to the landing zone, but before they could reach it, a familiar form on some sort of hoverpad appeared, glaring at Marcus.

It was Saren.

Marcus moved to raise his assault rifle, but Saren lit up with biotics as he unleashed a barrage of biotics on them, forcing them all into cover. Despite this, Saren never let up until he was satisfied they were pinned; lowering his hoverpad until it hovered just over the ground, Saren unlatching his own raikou pistol and holding it at his side, sneer visible. Growling, he addressed Marcus. Marcus turned from his cover and fired a burst of fire into Saren, but the shots were easily deflected as he went back into cover, Saren making no effort to retaliate.

"This has been an impressive diversion, Shepard," Saren addressed Marcus, "My geth were utterly convinced the salarians were the real threat." Marcus sneered as he listened to the turian, but he continued to listen, making no sounds. He looked at his comrades, all tending to the salarian wounded except for Tali, who stood behind the crate opposite him and nodded at him, letting him she was ready to fight if she was needed. Saren continued.

"Of course, it was all for nothing," Saren declared, "I can't let you disrupt what I've accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what's really at stake."

Marcus rolled his eyes as he answered, shouting across the platform, "Why are you doing this?"

Saren's answer was cool and calm, "You've seen the visions from the beacons, Shepard. You, of all people, should understand what the Reapers are capable of. They cannot be stopped."

"Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt. Do not sacrifice everything for the sake of petty freedoms. The Protheans tried to fight, and they were utterly destroyed."

"Trillions dead. But what if they had bowed before the invaders? Would the Protheans still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction?" Saren asked.

Marcus snorted, "Do you really believe the Reapers will let us live?" He really doubted it, but Saren seemed sure of himself. Did he smell good will coming the cybernetically enhanced turian? He couldn't be sure.

"Now you see why I never came forward with this to the Council. We organics are driven by emotion instead of logic. We will fight even when we know we cannot win."

"But if we work with the Reapers - if we make ourselves useful - think how many lives could be spared! Once I understood this, I joined Sovereign, though I was aware of the...dangers. I had hoped this facility would protect me." Saren admitted.

It then dawned on Marcus. _This guy really does have good will. Maybe, in his own way, he is still protecting the galaxy as a spectre should. Or maybe he's lying just to get on my goodside. And if he was researching indoctrination, then does that mean he was trying to find ways to protect himself from the effects? _

"You're afraid Sovereign is influencing you. You're afraid he's controlling your thoughts." Marcus stated.

Saren's response was immediate, "I've studied the effects of...indoctrination. The more control Sovereign exerts, the less capable the subject becomes. That is...my saving grace." Saren declared.

"Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit. My mind is still my own...for now. But the transformation from ally to servant can be subtle. I will not let it happen to me."

Marcus, taking advantage of his ability to get more answers, continued on, "Why are the geth following Sovereign? Is it out of worship?"

Saren sighed, "Indeed it is. They believe Sovereign to be some kind of god. The pinnacle of their own evolution. But the reaction of their deity is telling..."

"It is insulted."

"Sovereign does not desire the pitiful devotions the geth hurl at it. They are just tools, and no amount of belief on their part will change that."

"But as tools, they are useful. They will survive the coming invasion. If organic life is to survive, we must also prove we are useful. We must work with the Reapers."

Marcus, rolling his eyes again, continued pondering, "Tell me why Sovereign needs the conduit. Tell me what it is. Maybe we can find a way to stop them."

Saren shook his head, "The conduit is key to your destruction and my salvation. Sovereign needs my help to find it. That is the only reason I have not been indoctrinated."

Marcus cursed under his breath as he dumped the questions, checking his chrono. _We don't have much time. _"Sovereign's manipulating you and you don't even know it! You're already under it's power!"

Saren's calm demeanour turned into one more desperate, "No! Sovereign needs me! If I find the Conduit, I've been promised a reprieve from the envitable. This is my only hope."

Marcus immediately stepped out from his cover to face Saren, his weapon lowered, "Together we can stop Sovereign. We don't have to submit to the Reapers! We can beat them! Damn it Saren, listen to me!"

Saren raised a dismissive hand, "I no longer believe that, Shepard. The visions cannot be denied. The Reapers are simply too powerful. The only hope of survival is to join with them." Marcus cursed at Saren's ignorance but apparently the turian wasn't done yet.

"Sovereign is a machine. I thinks like a machine. If I can prove my value, I become a resource worth maintaining. There is no other logical conclusion!"

Marcus shook his head while shooting a disgusted look at the rogue spectre, "You were a spectre. You were sworn to defend the galaxy. Then you broke that oath to save yourself!"

Saren's tone turned into one of anger, "I'm not doing this for myself! Don't you see? Sovereign will succeed. It is envitable. My way is the only way any of us will survive! I'm forging an alliance between us and the Reapers. Between organics and machines. And in doing so, I will save more lives than have ever existed!"

Saren's voice then turned into one of malice as he glowed with biotics, raising his pistol and ready to engage in battle. Marcus raised his own rifle, painting his sights over Saren's head. Negoitations with over. Saren died now.

"But you would undo my work," Saren declared, his eyes narrowing, "You would doom our entire civilization to complete annihilation. And for that..."

"You must die!"

With a flick of his talon, Marcus felt Saren's biotics yank his diamond back out of his hand and onto the ground, forcing Marcus to raise his own biotic barrier to shield himself from Saren's pistol shots. Charging while he did this, he tried to punch Saren, but the turian leapt off his hover platform and punched Marcus in the side of his ribcage, causing him to collapse into the ground.

"Primitive ape," Saren cursed, cracking his talons as he slowly approached Marcus, settling his pistol on his hip. _Hand-to-hand is it? Very well then. _Marcus immediately kicked Saren in the chest, causing the turian to stumble back as Marcus pushed himself to his feet and met the turian's assault head on.

Saren had the advantage; the cybernetic upgrades grafted into his skin increased the amount of time before fatigue, meaning he could spar for hours on end and never get sweaty (which turians don't have sweat glands anyway) and his speed was majorly increased. Marcus was unmatched in everyway as Saren made his heavy N7 martial arts skills redundant as he tossed him around like a rag doll.

Marcus desperately tried to fight back, but it was hopeless. Every time he tried to get back up, Saren would kick him back down again. Just before he gave up though, a voice entered his head, low but unearthly. _Have faith. Believe. _Marcus had no idea who it was, but with energy he couldn't start to understand, one of his legs swiped Saren's in a footsweep, throwing the turian to the ground.

Taking advantage of his superior position, he leapt up and kicked the turian in the chest. Before he could follow with a kick to the face, Saren grabbed his foot and tossed him to the ground, Marcus landing face first into the ground with a grunt of pain. Tasting the copper taste of blood in his mouth, Marcus forced himself to spin around onto his back to face his turian opponent.

Saren was already over him and picked him up by the scruff of the neck, dragging him along the ground as Marcus struggled before coming to the edge of the platform, hanging Marcus helplessly over it. The two of them looked at each other with momentary glares. Saren was about to crush Marcus' wind pipe when a shotgun shot echoed through the platform, impacting Saren's shields. Dropping Marcus, he grabbed the edge of the platform to stop his fall, he turned to see engage his new opponent.

Marcus looked up to see Tali slowly approaching Saren, pumping shotgun shot after shotgun shot into Saren's shields. Saren approached her faster and just as she got his shields down, Saren, with a flick of his talons, slapped the shotgun out of her grip and flung her into a wall with his biotics. Fast approaching the quarian's position, he drew his sidearm.

Marcus scrambled faster to get onto the platform as Saren's form loomed over Tali, who just stared down the barrel of the turian's pistol. Before he could shoot her however, a yell of rage was heard before Saren was tossed away from a biotically tossed crate. Turning to see who saved her, she saw it was Marcus.

Saren tossed the crate off of him, but by this point, the rest of the squad had returned and opened fire on him. Deciding to retreat, Saren stepped onto his hover platform and took off, both him and Marcus sharing a glance as Saren entered a nearby dropship, that vessel then taking off into the atmosphere; to dock with Sovereign no doubt.

Hearing the base's alarms, he saw the Normandy descend and land just above the platform, the cargo hold door opening and allowing them inside. Marcus picked up Tali in his arms and rushed her inside; her moan of pain all he needed to know she was injured, and badly. Once in the cargo hold, he felt the Normandy take off as the cargo hold door closed.

**{Loading...}**

_July 8, 2183_

_0900 hours. _

_Breeding Facility Center, Eastern Perimeter, Geth Fortress, Virmire. _

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Virmire. _

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. _

Cradling her injured side, which was burning with pain, Ashley forcefully pulled her sprained arm up despite the agony and fired two, three, four shots into a charging geth trooper, downing it immediately. Every bit of her body burned with searing hot pain, unable to contain the moans of pain that came from her mouth. Checking the chrono on her omni-tool, she saw the countdown timer stated sixty seconds to detonation.

She heard the whir of engines and as she looked up, she watched the Normandy shoot into the atmosphere; leaving her behind. She knew Marcus was doing it out of respect for her wishes and she sadly wondered what Kaidan must be going through. And Tali. Her musings were interrupted by a pulse rifle shot hitting the area beside her and she responded with another burst of her pistol, the weapon overheating.

Priming her final grenade, she tossed it at a squad of geth shock troopers, the resulting explosion destroying most of them. She smiled sadly at the thought of the Williams family finally being redeemed. If that happened, she would die. Ironic, since she was just about to. Sighing heavily, and realizing even that brought pain, she took it back.

_Give 'em hell, skipper. Make them pay for all of it. Make Saren pay._

With a final war cry, she fired, non-stop into the geth horde, her omni-tool beeping to warn her that she had ten seconds to detonation. The geth couldn't stop it now. With a final look at the sky, she felt a tear roll down her cheek.

Five.

She smiled sadly, looking up at the sky.

Four.

A geth loomed over her, examining the bomb.

Three.

"Die you synthetic assholes." Ashley muttered as blood trickled from her mouth, body going numb. She was ready.

Two.

The geth attempted to retreat, but they couldn't escape now. Time was out for them. She found sadistic pleasure in knowing that.

One.

Everything went black for Ashley just before the massive explosion that engulfed the entire geth fortress in nuclear fire; everywhere within four kilometers of the base being completely wiped out from the fiery assault. When the blast cleared, the fortress simply ceased to exist. What was once there, was gone.

And Ashley had died a damn hero.

**{Loading...}**

Name: Williams, Ashley.

Race: Human.

Gender: Female.

Rank: Gunnery Chief, Alliance Navy.

Position: Shipboard, Armoury Officer.

Status: Killed In Action.

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams sacrificed her life to make sure nuclear device detonated and destroyed a target designated as priority alpha. Had she lived, she would have been recommended for the Star of Terra for her heroic actions.

**"We...you...lost a good friend that day."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"It reminded me we were at war. It reminded just how much of a threat Sovereign was to the galaxy. However, what happened next was what we least expected."**

Author's Note:

ArchReaper, is this a return to the long chapters?

No, it shall not be. This chapter was long because I really didn't see much point in making three parts (and 'Frozen Extinction' wasn't exactly my best split set of chapters) and mostly because I felt the dramatic tension of the scene would be ruined by a third part. I wanted to keep the tension flowing without leaving you a cliffhanger.

So no, the SUPER long chapters of the early days of Enigma will not be returning, period.

Don't forget to follow, favourite and review! Me and the story!

;)


	30. Chapter 24 Epitaph for the Fallen

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:**

**EPITAPH FOR THE FALLEN**

_July 8, 2183._

_1012 hours._

_Medical Bay, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Ten million kilometers from Virmire orbit, Hoc System, Sentry Omega Cluster._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

The door to the medical bay slid right open before Marcus could even hit the control panel, one of the Normandy's many nurses rushing out. Ignoring her, Marcus continued to carry Tali into the med bay. Upon questioning the quarian, he had found that that Tali had dislocated her right shoulder from Saren's attack. Garrus and the others were fine and all Marcus had suffered was a minor bullet wound.

As he entered, he found every bed in the medical bay occupied wounded salarian or human soldiers, all clutching wounds on their bodies as doctor Chakwas ordered her nurses to perform various tasks. Rentola was hooked up to a life support system on the first bed to his left and Kirrahe was on a bed next to him, allowing the human nurses to perform their duties.

Noticing the spectre's entrance, doctor Chakwas ordered two nurses to take over for her as she removed the mask covering her mouth and approached him. Noticing the quarian engineer in his arms, she frowned.

"What's happened to Tali?" Chakwas asked and upon seeing Marcus' shoulder wound, said, "And I will be treating that. No exceptions."

Marcus nodded, "Dislocated shoulder. She's...asleep." Marcus hesitated in saying that. Tali had just fallen asleep, right there, in his arms. Had he not been rushing her to medical, afraid she might have a suit puncture, he would have felt the quarian's head tucking in to his arms.

"I'm packed to capacity," Chakwas stated before pointing to Liara's quarters at the back of the bay, "Bring her in here." Marcus followed the woman into Liara's room, nodding at Imness and Mordin as he went past; the rest of his squad deciding that they were just getting in the way and leaving. Garrus was going to have to multi-task now as well; without Ashley, there wasn't an armourer.

Entering Liara's room and waiting for the door to close; Marcus carefully placed Tali on the asari researcher's desk, tenderly resting her head on the bed so as not to wake her. As he backed off a little to give Chakwas room, all he saw was Chakwas grabbing Tali's arm and then yanking it back into place. The orbs of light that served as the quarian's eyes shot open as she let out a scream of pain, cradling her arm. It wasn't long before it finally died down to a simple moan of discomfort.

"Now don't use you arm too much," Chakwas ordered, "Only light work; any heavy duty won't have that arm healing. And that means no work in engineering. Anything more than button pressing is pushing it. I'll have Adams informed of your reprieve from duty," Seeing Tali about to object, Marcus added his penny's worth.

"Doctor Chakwas is right Tali," He stated, seeing Tali's eyes dodge to him, "You may not like it, but you need time for that arm to heal and work won't help. Take some time off. I'm sure Adams won't miss you too much." The one thing Marcus needed was rest himself. He needed to recover from the events of Virmire. _All these revelations; Saren being goodwilled, the reapers being giant sentient starships and Ashley dying. This is going to be alot to take in. _He also realized that a funeral for the gunnery chief would also have to be arranged.

Sighing, Tali nodded and left the room, nodding at Marcus as she left. Before he could follow, Chakwas cleared her throat; indicating he should stay where he was. Turning to the doctor, he grimaced at the sight of Chakwas' hands on her hips.

"Now, I shall be taking a look at that arm. Looks like a nasty wound," Chakwas declared, moving towards the spectre while bringing up her omni-tool to scan his armor's systems.

"Apart from losing a friend doctor, I'm fine," Marcus stated, "Tali took care of it."

"Medi-gel isn't meant as a permanent solution Shepard," Chakwas stated, "You know that. And losing a good friend in battle can be...traumatizing to a soldier's morale. It's never good to lose a soldier under your command, especially in the heat of battle."

"I just...I just feel like there should have been a way to save her. A way for all of us to get out alive." Marcus sighed heavily, giving in to Chakwas' scans as she deactivated her omni-tool and ordered him to take off his chestplate. Complying to her wishes, he listened as she spoke.

"It's time like these that commander's must make difficult decisions," Chakwas explained, "You cannot protect us all. Garrus could be killed next, or even Tali, or Liara. You have to be able to accept that and move on. If you don't, the war is lost and the reapers will win."

Sighing as the doctor removed the medi-gel, he scratched the back of his neck, "I know, doc, and that's what scares me. Ashley was a fully-trained marine; she was trained for warfare. She was ready to die in battle from the day she signed up. But Tali? Liara? Hell, even Garrus? They're...so young, so full of life. They're technically still children. If one of them died under my command...how could I accept that. It would be like having a child killed because of what it's parent told it to do."

Chakwas sighed as she plucked the geth pulse round from Marcus' shoulder, dropping it on the floor as she got to work adding biofoam to his wounds and sealing the wound. Nodding, Marcus just decided to take his chestplate and head back to his cabin. He needed rest and lots of it. Not to mention he would have to explain to the Council why he detonated a nuclear device on a habitable world.

Chakwas shook her head at him, "Chief Williams' death couldn't be helped and you know it. Stop beating yourself up over it. Williams wouldn't want you to." Marcus stopped at the door and chuckled, looking directly at the good doctor as he responded.

"Thank you doctor, but I need to work this out myself. If anyone needs me, they can find me in my cabin." Nodding, he left the room, followed by doctor Chakwas who quickly left to tend to her patients. Once out of the medical bay, he contacted the cockpit.

"Joker, set a course for the Citadel. We've got explaining to do. We've also got to warn them about Sovereign. Also, have all squad members meet in the debriefing room. We've got information we need to disseminate." Joker's response wasn't nessacary. Joker knew not to play around; a member of the crew was dead and even Joker knew when to be respectful.

Marcus managed to carry himself with the same determined demeanour used the rest of the time; he didn't know how he was doing it, or why. Maybe it was due to his years of military experience. Maybe he was more of a hardass marine then he thought he was originally. Either way, it didn't matter. A soldier under his command had died today; and he would have to answer for it.

_'Stop beating yourself up over it.' I wish I could, doc, but if I don't, who will? _Once he had climbed the stairs and reached the debriefing room, he stepped in to see Tali, Liara, Wrex and Kaidan already inside. He sat down in his usual seat, managing to tear his eyes away from what once had been Ashley's seat. Delta's seat.

It wasn't long before Garrus arrived, the turian explaining that he had had to take over Ashley's old duties, only reminding everyone of those fateful events on Virmire. The awkward silence of the room was broken by Kaidan as he sat forward.

"I can't believe...Ash's...dead," Kaidan stated, "It should have been me defending that bomb."

Liara shook her head as she too leaned forward, "It wasn't your fault, Kaidan. It was noone's fault. Ashley was a brave woman and I'm sure it's what she would have wanted; to go out with a bang."

Kaidan shook his head, "But she didn't need to! She could have lived! She could have been sitting here, right now..." Kaidan's argument fell apart as he tried to form a coherent sentence, but only ended up babbling. It wasn't long before he just dipped his head and tried to wash the pain away. But no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't work.

Speaking up, Marcus stood in the center of the room, "Ashley did what was expected of her. She is a credit to her uniform and a paragon to her family's honor. Thanks to her, the Williams family will be remembered for as long as the Alliance exists. Ashley's actions shall not be forgotten by this crew, neither the entire galaxy."

In his mind, Marcus whispered the Mourner's Kaddish, remembering that he had had to say that four times during this war now, one of them being for a death that should have happened, but not so brutally; Jenkins, Benezia and now Ashley. How much longer until he was saying the Mourner's Kaddish for every member of his crew? No, Saren would die before that happened. He had to be stopped.

Deciding to change the subject, Liara spoke up again, also standing up, "Commander, about the beacon on Virmire. You said it had completed your vision?" Nodding in her direction, Liara moved forward again until she was inches from him, "Then I must meld with you. The visions will be still jumbled up and you will need an asari meld for the cipher to work. If you would allow me to, of course."

"Do it." Marcus nodded, closing his eyes as Liara placed her hands on the sides of his head. Reciting the words Shiala had spoken, her eyes opened once more to show night black irises, the images then flooding into Marcus' mind. This time however, they made more sense, and he could hear what sounded like a voice, a warning, as well as Sovereign.

_They are coming..._

_The Reapers..._

_Unstoppable..._

**WE ARE THE END OF EVERYTHING.**

_Useless..._

_Cannot win..._

_Damnation for all of us..._

_Military assets, exhausted..._

_You...must...stop them._

_Cycle...can be broken._

Finally, the images stopped and Marcus opened his eyes. The words had once been in a different language, but they had been translated by the cipher. _The language was Prothean. That was a prothean's voice. _The words were jumbled, like a distress call almost...And apparently, both he and Liara were thinking the same thing.

"That beacon...the visions...it was a prothean distress call. A warning. It was meant for our cycle, meant for us." Marcus stated.

"Not for us initially; I bet the beacons were transmitters for a prothean warning signal. They may have been trying to warn their colonies of the reaper invasion. If so, the warning either came too late or was rendered moot by the reaper forces. Either way, it is clear this signal was meant for the mind of a mindmelder. Interesting, the protheans were mindmelders." Liara seemed happy at hearing that.

"But the images...what did they mean?" Marcus asked.

"I recognized one of the places from the signal, but I can't place my finger on it," Liara pondered. Before Marcus could get her to elaborate, her face lit up in realization, "That's it! The place from the vision was Ilos! The conduit is on Ilos! That must be where Saren and Sovereign are headed!"

Tali chirped in as she also stood up, "That must be why Benezia was trying to get information on the Mu Relay. It's the only way to reach Ilos," Tali stated her voice lowered, "Unfortunately, Ilos is in the Pangaea Expanse. That's in the Terminus Systems."

"If that's where Saren is headed, then we have to get to Ilos. Can you tell me anything about it?" Marcus asked, ignoring Tali's comment of it being in the Terminus systems. If the Council cared about galactic safety, they won't care about an incursion into the terminus systems.

"It's the location of the galaxy's largest site of prothean ruins to date," Liara explained, "The whole planet is literally the ruins of what we guessed was a gigantic prothean city. It puzzles me why the Reapers wouldn't cleanse it of evidence, but I guess they never expected anyone to want to settle on such a...creepy planet."

Tali nodded in agreement, "When my people passed Ilos, we considered it for possible settlement. The Council hadn't shown us any prejudice so we guessed they didn't want it," Tali explained, "When we deployed a science team to scout the planet though, they were so...creeped out by the place that we abandoned all attempts to settle it. It was just so...unsettling. Now that I know about the Reaper existence, it just reminds me that it's a grave site for millions of protheans. A mass epitaph for thousands."

"Then that's where we go," Marcus stated.

"But we must approach with caution. Saren will have his entire fleet orbiting Ilos. And lets not forget Sovereign." Liara stated.

"Another reason to talk with the Council. We'll need a fleet if we're going to attack Ilos," Marcus declared, "Everybody get some rest. Saren will most likely be there in force and I want to be there waiting for him when he pops up." Everybody nodded at him as they all got up and left, all moving to get some rest in their sleeper pods. Marcus, when he got the chance, would soon join them in sleep, but first he had reports to file out.

Just as he was leaving, he stood at the top of the captain's station; the galaxy map appearing in the middle of the CIC. This was where they had given Benezia her funeral; and this is where Ashley would have hers. Before he step back down, Joker's voice came over his headset.

"I forwarded the mission update to the Citadel, Commander," Joker reported, "We've got confirmation on those reinforcements." This caused Marcus to freeze as he raised a brow at the galaxy map.

"Ambassador Udina wants us to report back to the Citadel. The Council is massing a joint-species fleet to strike deep at the heart of the geth and take down Saren." Marcus gave a large grin as he moved down the ramp and towards the stairs.

"I knew they'd come around!" Marcus declared, "Tell them we're already on our way. I want the Normandy spearheading that fleet. Wake me when you need me Joker." Hearing Joker's acknowledgement, Marcus switched off his comm as he arrived on the crew deck and he immediately approached his cabin, looking forward to a long night's rest.

All the things he had learned about Saren and Sovereign's plans, even Sovereign's true identity, had shaken him to the core. Having to infiltrate the Terminus systems to stop him added even more pressure to the situation, but the addition of Council forces switching from defensive to offensive was a nice bonus to the predicament. Not only would the Council keep the geth at bay, but it would also give them the fleet they needed to attack Ilos.

As he entered his quarters, he immediately plopped into his desk chair and accessed his terminal. Sighing, he got to work on filing out those reports on Virmire. He had already scheduled a service for Ashley in the morning and the next day they would arrive at the Citadel. Lots of work to do before then.

**{Loading...}**

_July 9, 2183._

_1450 hours. _

_Medical Bay, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Captain Waui Kirrahe, Commander Osei Rentola, Master Sergeant Mordin Solus, Specialist Maelon Heplorn, Medical Chief Karin Chakwas, Lieutenant Ganto Imness._

"Commander Shepard," Kirrahe greeted as the N7 shook his hand, "We thank you for the time you take in checking in on us."

Marcus smiled as his hands entered parade rest behind his back, "Don't mention it. You may not be part of my crew; but while onboard, you are my responsibility. Besides, I've got rounds to do." Kirrahe nodded at Marcus examined the occupants throughout the room. Rentola was still in critical condition; he was packed with medi-gel and biofoam and was covered in bandages.

Kirrahe looked much better than his second and his other subordinates were mostly fine; Mordin looked like he had seen better days, but the many scratches and cuts he had were nothing compared to what his commanding officer's got. Maelon looked perfectly fine and Imness had only suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder, so he was mostly fine as well.

"Everyone out alive," Mordin spoke up, "Except Avot." The salarian looked at Imness and the salarian reciprocated the glance with a look of sorrow.

"Manos was a brave man but if what Imness tells us is fact, then the indoctrination was too powerful, even for him." Kirrahe stated.

"What Imness said is correct, but I would prefer if you all keep this a secret from the public or even your fellow STG and superiors," Marcus requested, "Information like this could cause large scale, galactic panic. It would get messy...fast."

"Don't worry commander," Maelon added, "If we salarians are good at anything, it's secrecy. Our lips are as sealed as you'll get them."

Nodding at Maelon, Kirrahe turned back to Marcus, "Once back at the Citadel, we shall depart and leave your ship. We'll have another ship take us back to Sur'Kesh where we will get time to properly heal. So, I guess, this may be the last time we see each other for a long time."

Marcus nodded solemnly, patting Kirrahe on the back, "You fought hard, for a salarian. You're one hardass, son of a bitch, captain."

Kirrahe let a sheepish grin cross his features, "Salarians stronger than we look, but true. I am a unique utility. Maybe we'll meet again, maybe we won't. By what the LT said, I say we'll find ourselves on the forefront of a full-scale galactic invasion. If so, must be ready, and I suspect you will need people to help you fight?"

"We're working to stop them," Marcus stated, "But if we can't, yes, we'll need all the manpower we can get."

"Then you can count on our service," Kirrahe stated, shaking Marcus' hand once again, "You've made some friends in the union today, Shepard and when the drums of war beat once again, we shall meet each other on the battlefield to fight the enemy side by side once more. It was an honor fighting with you." With that, he snapped a human salute, which Marcus begrudgingly returned.

"As it was with you, captain. Take care of yourself, Kirrahe." Marcus dropped his salute.

"You too, Shepard." the captain returned and Marcus nodded at the other salarians as he left, still thinking of who he should talk to next. In the end, he decided he'd spend some time with Tali. Last time he had checked, she was talking with Garrus in the cargo hold.

Taking the elevator down, he walked out into the cargo hold and fast approached Tali who was, unsurprisingly, still talking with Garrus as he worked at the armoury. Once he reached them, Tali looked at him and immediately stopped talking to greet him. Garrus, noticing this, also turned and greeted him.

"What are you two talking about?" Marcus asked as he leaned against the armoury station.

"Weapons," Garrus huffed, "She thinks shotguns are better than sniper rifles. When it's clearly the beautiful sniper rifle."

Tali rolled her eyes, "Shotguns leave a target shredded. I don't see sniper rifles doing that."

Garrus sighed as he turned to his commander, his face lighting up as he asked, "Which do you think is better? Shotguns or Sniper Rifles?"

"From a tactical point of view; both are and both aren't. Depends on the situation."

"I mean which you prefer." Garrus asked.

"Oh, that's easy. Shotguns of course." Marcus replied with a grin.

"You two are ganging up on poor old me! First Wrex, then Tali now you! I honestly hope we don't have a fetish for shotguns going on in this ship," Garrus snorted before turning to Tali, "I've got some stuff to finish, I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay," Tali stated before saying goodbye to the two of them, but it wasn't long before Marcus joined her. Seeing him following her, she knew he had come to see her and smiled, both of them waving at Garrus as they entered the elevator to head to the crew deck.

"We're holding the service for Ashley in just under an hour," Marcus informed the quarian. She nodded solemnly.

"I'll be there. I was one of her best friends, I should be there." Tali said with obvious sadness. A day after and Ashley's death was still taking its toll on the crew.

Wrapping an arm around her, he pulled her close, but only close enough for them arms to be touching. He gently rubbed her arm as he spoke, "It's okay. Just remember, she managed to destroy two geth divisions along with a fortress. I bet that's going to win some compliments for her by your people, ain't it?"

Tali nodded as she felt the warmth just Shep-Marcus', arm gave her. "Yes it will...Marcus. When my people hear her name, they shall remember her as a hero to not only the galaxy, but the quarian people. Any marine, even Kal'Reegar, would be proud of what she did."

"Definitely." Marcus said awkwardly as he let go of Tali. The door opened and they tried to distance themselves to a non-intimate distance so as to not give people ideas. The temptation to hold hands was strong, but they had made it clear to each other they didn't want people to know yet. At least not until they're relationship built up a little more.

Once the elevator door had fully opened, they stepped out and together, entered the mess hall. Collecting some food, they sat next to each other at one of the empty tables. Looking at each other awkwardly, they felt hands meet each other under the table, hoping noone would see as they squeezed each other's hands before letting go and digging into their meals.

"So, what have you been getting up to while being relieved from engineering?" Marcus asked, taking a disgusted bite out of his ration bar. Once again, he swallowed the tasteless substance quickly so as to not insult his taste buds anymore than he needed to.

"Just moving around. Talking to the crew, getting to know more about everyone. It's been pretty boring actually. Usually I'd just talk to you or Ashley..." Tali trailed off at the woman's name but quickly changed subject, "So...nothing else. So what have you been up to?"

"Nothing much; reading reports, filing my own reports, sleeping, cleaning my armor and weapons and now I'm doing my rounds. Kirrahe's group are scheduled to leave once we hit the Citadel and return to Sur'Kesh. Damn shame; he's a fine soldier."

"I guess he's not really suited to our line of work," Tali remarked, smirking.

"Yeah, I guess suicidal attacks and explosions aren't his forte," Marcus answered, chuckling to himself. Refusing to take another bite of the hidden concoction of food that centered around the ration bar, he decided to lay it on the table and turned back to Tali, smiling.

"So...how's sleep in the sleeper pod?" Marcus asked.

Tali stopped for a second, but continued to insert the nutrient paste into her vocalizer. When was done, she pulled the tube out and threw it in the bin, chewing her equally horrible sustenance as she answered, "Decent. I really didn't get the chance to thank you for that device you gave me. It really helped me sleep."

Giving her a lopsided grin, he replied "You're more than welcome, but I was just wondering if we should...well...mix the sleeping arrangements around a little." Tali raised a brow behind her mask, not sure what Marcus had meant by that statement.

Seeing her cocked head, he explained, "Well, since we're...together...I was wondering if you might...um..."

"Want to sleep with you? In your bed?" Tali finished for him and upon seeing his nod, blushed. _He's...inviting me...into his cabin? His home? I'd love to but...wouldn't it be special treatment? Do I really deserve such extravagance._

Seeing Tali's hesitation, "Forget it, stupid question. Think too far ahead." Marcus stated but Tali's response was immediate.

"No no no! Not a stupid question at all! I was just thinking...are you sure? Wouldn't I...get in the way?"

"Definitely not," Marcus stated, "Tali, if we want to be together, we have to act like it. And people don't have to know, we can keep it secret. Just between you and me." Tali seemed to think through his words with hesitation but when she was done, she nodded slowly.

"I'll...I'll think about it. Not tonight, that's for sure, but I'll think about it. You've given me something to look forward to." Tali smiled behind her mask before swallowing her horrible food. It was all she could do not to grimace at the terrible taste. She lay a hand on Marcus' leg and let it rest there for a time and Marcus also lay a hand on hers, the two of them just lost in each other's stares.

Reality eventually kicked in though and they finally, and reluctantly, pulled their glances at hands away, returning to the conversation of what two best friends would talk about. It wasn't long before the table was crowded with alliance officers too so it was a good thing they had stopped when they did. So they talked.

They talked about themselves.

**{Loading...}**

_July 10, 2183._

_1657 hours. _

_Presidium, Council Chambers, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Ambassador Donnel Udina, Councilor Sparatus, Councilor Tevos, Councilor Valern._

Here they were. This is where the decision to stop Saren would occur. This is where the war would finally end. The ceremony for Ashley's funeral had been long and full of melancholy, Tali weeping many times during the requiem. Liara had performed the same thing she had with Benezia; it wasn't the same, but it showed that Liara had accepted Ashley as a friend, a comrade.

And here they were; at the Citadel, ready to take the Council's fleet and lead it to Ilos where they would stop Saren, Sovereign and the geth once and for all. He stood on the raised platform with Udina on his right, the human politician remaining stoic as always. Sparatus shot his signature glare at Marcus as he always did, Valern looked pensive and Tevos just looked calm. Damn, was the Council always liked this or were they posing for their species stereotype?

With the meeting begun, Udina turned to Marcus with a smile, "Good job, Shepard," Udina began, "Thanks to you the Council is taking real action against Saren."

Marcus smiled and nodded back, turning his head to face the Council as well, feeling overly smug. He couldn't imagine how much the turian councilor hated him right now. Surprisingly, it was Tevos who responded.

"Ambassador Udina is correct," Tevos explained, "If Saren is foolish enough to attack the Citadel, we will be ready for him." Tevos then turned to Sparatus, offering the turian the chance to state the tactical allocation of their fleets. Sparatus did so, overabundantly.

"Patrols are stationed at every mass relay linking Council space to the Terminus Systems." Marcus fumed at Sparatus' answer. _That's it? All I go through and all they do is post patrols at bloody relays!? They should be dispatching a fucking fleet to invade Ilos! I'm fucking sick of playing these games! _Instead of raging, he remained calm.

"How many ships are sending to attack Ilos?" Marcus asked.

Valern answered this time, "Ilos is only accessible through the Mu Relay, deep inside the Terminus Systems. If we send a fleet in there the only possible outcome will be full-scale war."

_For fuck sake! They're more worried about a war with mercenaries then they are with sentient dreadnoughts! What will it take for these morons to bloody listen!_ To Marcus' half surprise and half-expectance, Udina turned around and backed the Council's decision. Figures.

"Now is the time for descretion, commander," Udina explained, "Secrecy was Saren's greatest weapon. Revealed, he is no longer a threat. This is over." Marcus felt all the pent up rage he had built up inside of him boil out in his words. He could take it no longer. This game of politics had to stop!

Pointing at the Council, he shouted, "If Saren finds the Conduit, we're all screwed!" Marcus then slammed his fist into the railing, "Stop fucking around and send a fleet to Ilos! Don't you realize the magnitude of what's going to happen if we don't stop him at Ilos? Galactic safety is at risk!"

Sparatus shook his head as he turned to Udina, "Ambassador, I'm getting the feeling that the commander doesn't want to let this go." Marcus felt his rage boil up even more at being ignored. This was ridiculous; the Council talked about galactic stability when they kept ignoring the evidence given to them by their own spectre. Idiots, each and every one of them.

"There are serious political implications here, Shepard," Udina declared, "Humanity's made great gains thanks to you, but now you're becoming more trouble than your worth."

Marcus pointed an accusing finger at Udina, his features vehement, "I don't give a shit about your political ramifications! Forget the fucking ramifications! Get your heads out of your ass and take a look outside! Stop Saren before it's too late!" _Christ, I can't believe this is happening. Our entire battle plan is falling apart around me. _

Tali immediately spoke up, pointing at Udina accusingly, "You bosh'tet bastard! You're selling us out!" Udina shot the quarian a disgusted look which was mirrored by Sparatus, but they all just ignored the quarian's insult as Udina raised his omni-tool and input a few commands into it.

"It's just politics commander," Udina said through a smug smile, "You've done your job, now let us do ours. I've ordered all the Normandy's systems be placed into lockdown. Until further notice, you're grounded."

Marcus stood frozen to the spot. _You piece of shit, traitor. Where's Anderson? Shit, probably threw him into the garbage too, the asshole. I'm letting this stop me. If they don't want to stop Saren, fine. I'll do it my bloody self._

With a snort, he just waved his hands in surrender, "Fine, you want to hang around and wait for Saren to attack, be my guest. Just don't come pleading for my help when Saren starts burning the Citadel to the ground with an entire reaper fleet behind him." With that, he spun on the spot and left, leaving the Council and Udina shocked, his squad following quickly behind him.

_I won't stop. I'll find another ship. Take my team and we'll escape to Ilos. Saren has to be stopped; it doesn't matter who does it as long as someone does it. I don't expect us to come out alive, but it's our best chance. _

The walk back to the Normandy was tortorous. Marcus had been looking for ships to hijack, but had so far wound up with nothing. C-Sec was now guarding the Normandy's airlock and they were only allowed back inside to grab food, rest and do normal ship duties. They were essentially banned from entering their own ship.

Upon getting inside, He immediately stormed down the hallway and onto the crew deck, where he suddenly found himself leaning against the wall of the Medical Bay. His team were equally as pissed off, all returning to their stations to deal with the new news. Stuck on the Citadel while Saren was most likely locating the Conduit.

Suddenly, he found Tali at his side, sliding down next to him.

"Hey," Marcus said lamely.

"Hey," Tali reciprocated, looking into his eyes. He looked defeated; as if everything he had done had failed and there was nothing else he could do. He felt betrayed and most of all; sapped.

"We can't give up," Tali stated, trying to cheer him up.

"I know," Marcus said, "But I'm just so furious with the Council. After all that we had been through, all we had done for them, they just turned us down and grounded us. We saved their asses and they reward us with probation. I just thought they'd actually believe us this time. Believe that the Reapers are real."

"Maybe, but who says we need them? We can do this without their help, Marcus." Tali stated, the name on her tongue still felt so foreign to her, but she was hoping to get used to it.

"I don't know, Tali, I just don't know." Marcus lamented.

Tali just wanted to hug him, but instead she settled for standing up and helping him up. As she did though, his momentum caused him to land an inch away from her, his forehead touching her visor. He smiled at the sudden position they found themselves in and knowing that noone was looking, they embraced.

The warmth that radiated from Tali's suit alone was like a euphoria to Marcus. He felt so secure and warm and he just held her there, not wanting to let go for any reason.

Tali moaned in delight at the sudden warmth that seeped into her suit, her body tensing with joy at the sudden feeling. She also felt a different feeling; one originating from inbetween her legs. She tightened her legs as she blushed, but she didn't lessen her embrace for any reason. She just wanted to stay there.

The comfortable silence of their embrace was broken by Joker's voice coming into Marcus' comm, "Shepard, I've got an incoming message for you. Transmitting to your omni-tool, marked urgent." With a sigh, Marcus acknowledged Joker and let go of Tali, both of them reluctantly pulling away as they awkwardly stood a meter away from each other, Marcus accessing his omni-tool and bringing up a message from Anderson.

_From: David Edward Anderson._

_To: Marcus Lee Shepard._

_Subject: Your lockdown._

_Look, I know you're pissed off right now, but I've got a plan to free the Normandy and get you off the Citadel. Meet me at Flux, we'll discuss more there. _

_P.S. Delete this message after you read it._

Smiling, he deactivated his omni-tool and looked at Tali with a grin, "Things just got better." With renewed confidence, he ordered Garrus to meet him at the airlock and Tali followed behind him, the two meeting Garrus at the airlock before setting out to Flux.

"Shepard, just where are we going?" Garrus asked as the airlock sealed behind them.

Moving past the C-Sec guards posted at the airlock; which had doubled in size now since they had entered the ship, now being the size of half a squad, he waited until they had entered the elevator before he answered.

"Flux. Apparently Anderson has a plan to get us the hell off this station," Marcus stated and Garrus seemed to light up at the idea.

"Can I kiss him?" Garrus asked in delight.

"Not unless you want a fist full of N7," Marcus answered with a grin and Garrus just chuckled. The rest of the elevator ride was spent in silence as they listened to the corny music and news reports of the elevator drone on until they finally reached C-Sec Academy. As soon as they exited the elevator, they were immediately greeted by a familiar face.

"Sergeant Bailey," Marcus greeted, shaking the man's hand.

"Commander, heard about what happened," Bailey stated, "That must have been one hell of a kick to the balls. Believe me when I say I feel your pain. They've done it to me in more ways than one."

"I don't think you came to see us out of sympathy, did you?" Garrus asked.

"If I was that kind of man I'd be wearing a tiara and a skirt," Bailey deadpanned, "No, I came to tell you that Entricas wants you back on duty."

Garrus chuckled, "Tell him he can go hire a trashcan. I'm really not in the mood for his bullshit. Besides, if we wants to argue his point then he can take it up with my father. He's the one who authorized my pardon to serve with the commander and I doubt he'd want to waste a Hierarch's time."

"Shoving it in his face?" Bailey laughed, "I can't wait to see this. Well, I guess you three have something important to do, so I won't keep you. I've got lazy butthurt turians to lead." With that Bailey, squeezed past them and into the elevator, hitting the button to take him to the Normandy's docking bay.

With a shrug of his shoulders, he lead the pair over to a nearby rapid transit terminal and requested a taxi to Hellion plaza. As they waited for it to arrive, they looked around the academy area and saw that there were more C-Sec guards than usual. _Part of the Council's response plan? No, they're not that smart. _He was still pissed off about Udina's betrayal. That asshole was meant to be human's representative and what did he do? Betrayed the one man who could end this menace.

When the taxi arrived, they all stepped in and talked idly about the Council's sudden betrayal and what to do about it. The trip to Hellion plaza wasn't as long as expected and when they finally got there, they stepped out to see a large group of humans centered in the middle of the plaza, all cheering two words that made Marcus' skin crawl.

"Terra Firma! Terra Firma! Terra Firma!" They were protestors, all centered around the shopping area where a squad sized group of turian and asari C-Sec officers were centered, all desperately trying to keep the protestors away. Some had riot shields while a few others had weapons loaded with stun rounds.

The trio ignored the protestors as they exited the plaza and headed up the corridor taking them to Flux. He could already here the pounding music as he approached and when he finally stepped inside, the music was pumped to full volume and there was dancers all over the place. As he scanned the room, he found Anderson waving him over from one of the tables in the center of the bar area of Flux.

Heading over, his team pulled up seats at the table and Anderson shook each of their hands, before turning back to Marcus.

"I got your message. You heard about the lockdown?" Marcus asked.

Anderson sighed and nodded, "Udina informed me of his plans to do so when you returned. I tried to get a warning out to you before you docked but he was blocking me. I'm sorry, Shepard."

"But you said you had a plan." Garrus chirped in and Anderson nodded at the turian.

"Yes, but it's risky," Anderson responded, turning back to Marcus, "I know of a way to override the Normandy's lockdown, but it involves infiltrating Citadel Control."

"From there, I can directly override the controls, allowing you and the Normandy to escape. However, once you do this, you will become a fugitive. You can't return to the Citadel or the Council will have you tried for high treason."

Marcus nodded, noticing a flaw in Anderson's plan, "But you'll envitably get caught. You'll be tried for high treason against the Council. Anderson, that's punishable by death. Besides, Citadel Control is patrolled around the clock by armed guards."

"This isn't about me and you know it," Anderson stated, his jawline firm, "As for the guards...I'll just have to think of something. I wasn't an N7 for nothing."

"Why don't you simply break into Udina's office and hack his computer?" Garrus suggested, "Trick Avina into thinking the lockdown's release was authorized. As a simple VI, she won't be able to tell the difference between a fake or true. She'll dub it as authentic."

Anderson seemed to run this through his head, "That might work. Okay, Udina's office it is then. If he's there I'll just have to wing it. Maybe knock him out? It's the least he deserves for that stunt he pulled on you."

Marcus grinned, "I'd love to do it myself, but as long as someone gets a shot at it," Running the plan through his head one more time, he nodded, "Okay, let's do this. Saren has to be stopped and the Council won't be stopping me or my crew."

Anderson grabbed Marcus' hands and pulled it into a brotherly handshake, grinning as he did, "That's the spirit. Now, let's go show the Council how's it done." With that, the four of them left Flux and departed upon entering the hellion, Anderson taking a taxi to the human embassies. Marcus, Garrus and Tali took a taxi back to the Normandy and upon arriving at C-Sec academy, immediately hit the elevator.

Tali shut the music off upon the elevator's ascent and when they hit the top, they immediately approached the ship's airlock. Upon meeting Tali's look, he nodded and both he and Garrus continued approaching the airlock while Tali feined a shreak.

"Someone help me! My suit is punctured, there are mercenaries attacking the Academy!" Tali squealed falling onto the ground. The C-Sec officers eyed the quarian with disgust, but the very idea of the academy being attacked made them see the larger picture and four turians approached the quarian and started questioning her.

Grinning, Garrus then did his part pretending to be wounded, cradling his side as he called for further assistance. Five more guards approached the turian, leaving the two at the airlock. As he approached, he smiled and looked at the salarian to the left.

"Mind if I ask you a question?" Marcus asked.

Rolling her eyes, the salarian answered, "What" she said exasperatedly, visibly annoyed by the human's question.

"What's a salarian's reaction time?" Without giving the salarian time to understand the importance of the question, his fist impacted her chest, the N7 grabbing the salarian's weapon and slamming it into her asari colleague's forehead. The asari fell to the ground unconscious and before the salarian woman could call out, she met the same fate.

Turning around, he saw all five of the guards surrounding Garrus had also been knocked out. Turning to Tali, he saw all four of them knocked out as well, Tali using the handle of her knife to knock out the last turian before reseating it on her thigh. Before anyone could move though, another turian voice called out.

"Nobody move! You, Shepard, turn around, slowly, hands where I can see 'em." Marcus did as ordered, holding his hands in the air as he turned to face the guard, who held an assault rifle at Marcus' face.

"You're under arrest for high treason against the Council," The turian growled, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult and attorney before speaking to the police and have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney-"

The turian didn't get to finish as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, his body got limp as he dropped his weapon and fell, face first, onto the floor. Standing behind the turian, was the armed form of Bailey, pistol in hand.

"You don't need to read a hero the Miranda rights, kid," Bailey pointed, carefully stepping over the knocked out guard, "He's going to feel that one when he wakes up." With that, he stopped next to Bailey and grinned at Marcus' confused expression.

"You helped us." Marcus stated rather than question.

"Don't thank me too soon," Bailey deadpanned, "Thanks to Garrus I've never been a 'by the rules' man. I reckon the Council needs a kick in the balls for a change. Go on, I'll pretend to be knocked out for the sake of legitimacy. I figure you've got a galaxy to save." With that, Bailey lay himself on the ground and closed his eyes, faking his knock out.

Nodding, he motioned for Garrus and Tali to follow him and entered the airlock. Ordering Tali to override the decontamination chamber, he rushed inside and entered the cockpit.

"Commander?" Joker spoke up, "Ambassador Udina just authorized our take off. I thought we were grounded. You convince him to let us go?"

"Somewhat." Marcus' cryptic answer caused Joker to raise a brow and look at Garrus.

"Long story short; Anderson planned our escape and tricked Avina into thinking Udina authorized our departure." Joker grinned largely at the thought of Anderson hacking Udina's personal terminal and then looked at Marcus.

"You know what to do. Get us the hell out of here." Marcus ordered.

"With pleasure." Joker announced before immediately getting to work. Hearing the clamps disengage, the next thing they felt was the Normandy backing out of the docks. Following the hanar's instructions once again, the Normandy turned fully until it faced Widow and then Joker punched it; the Normandy shooting out towards the Widow Relay.

"Council's way ahead of us," Joker announced, "We've got turian and asari frigates moving to intercept us along with numerous fighters."

"Battle speed Joker, I want us at that relay yesterday!" Nodding, Joker input the commands and the Normandy entered full speed, rocketing past a turian frigate and dodging the hostile fire coming from the pursuing fighters as the stealth frigate made full speed towards the relay. Activating the stealth drive, they were able to trick the sensors of the Destiny Ascension, throwing it off it's pursuit course as they hit the relay.

Reappearing in the Hector System of the Scorpius Cluster, the Normandy managed to sneak past the turian and salarian patrol at the relay, soon moving to exit the system all together. All of them let out a sigh of relief at their successful escape from the Citadel. Now they had a mission to complete.

"Joker, set a course for the Pangaea Expanse, the refuge system. I'll be in my quarters if anyone needs me." With that, Marcus marched off the cockpit, heading straight for his cabin to finish off some reports before hitting the bed. God knew he was going to need the rest.

_This is it. We win here and destroy the Conduit, or the entire galaxy is doomed. _

There was no room for failure.

**"Keelah, I remember tha...I mean, that must have been quite the experience. Not knowing what you were travelling into. Tell me, what was Ilos like?"**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"We're getting there. However, there was that moment before Ilos where Shepard and Tali had a little...privacy. It wasn't much, but it set the course for their relationship for the next three years."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**Miranda Rights: Ever watched those crime shows and, when arresting someone, the police read the arrestant their rights? Yeah, those are called the 'Miranda Rights.'**

* * *

Author's Notes:

You're probably asking; will this fanfic continue on AFTER the events of ME1?

My answer: Yes and no. Yes, it will continue after ME1 and no, because it won't continue that long afterward and the rest will be left to the sequel, which is already in the works. You'll be pleased to know that 'Mass Effect 3: How It Could Have Happened?' will also be returning, with Part 15 in the works. Upon Enigma's conclusion, that fanfic will begin it's rise once more (I hope)

Keelah Se'lai!


	31. Chapter 25 Love Doesn't Hide

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:**

**LOVE DOESN'T HIDE**

_July 11, 2183_

_1458 hours._

_Human Embassy, Citadel Embassies, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Ambassador Donnel Udina, Councilor Sparatus, Councilor Tevos, Councilor Valern._

Udina continued to rub the injury on his cheek as he waited for the link to the Council to set up. He had been working on his terminal when Anderson had stormed into the room uninvited and knocked him out with a single punch. Next thing he knew; the Normandy was gone and Shepard and his crew were missing. Anderson had been arrested immediately after, the Council waiting to place charges.

When the link was finally set up, he stood up straight and watched as the forms of the three councilors appeared on the holo projectors.

"Ambassador, what is the meaning of this?" Sparatus demanded, "I hear the Normandy has been stolen?"

Udina cleared his throat before answering, "Correct, Councilor. Lieutenant Commander Shepard and his crew hijacked the Normandy and escaped with it before the Citadel fleet could set up a proper blockade."

"And how, may I ask, did he succeed? Avina isn't known for being sloppy. How did he override the lockdown you had in place?" Valern asked.

"Anderson hacked my computer and tricked her into thinking I authorized the departure. He is currently in C-Sec's custody and waiting charges." Udina informed them.

"Where were you when all this happened?" Tevos demanded.

"Knocked out...councilor." Udina stated, once again rubbing the sore lump on his cheek.

Sparatus snorted, "I suggest waiting for him to return. He can't go off on his own without the resources of the Council or the Alliance. He'll come back to us and when he does, I want him and his crew arrested, along with that suit-rat removed. I've tolerated her presence on one of OUR vessels long enough."

"As have I, Councilor," Udina agreed, "I will make sure all efforts are made to prepare for his return. His insubordination will not go unpunished, I promise you that."

"He's probably going to Ilos," Valern suggested, "The fool could start all out war. But if he thinks he can be discreet..."

Sparatus shook his head, "I'll alert Palaven Command. Have Didact Coronati keep an eye out for merc activity on the Terminus borders." Turning to Udina, the turian's eyes narrowed.

"As for you ambassador," Sparatus begun, "This is your mess, and you will have it cleaned up immediately. The Council will not be held responsible for the mistakes of an alliance representative. Are we clear?"

Udina nodded, "Perfectly clear."

"This metting is adjourned." Tevos announced and the holos of the Council winked out of existence once again and Udina was left alone in the room. Turning around, he sat back behind his desk and alerted the patrols guarding the relays to Widow be on the look out for an alliance stealth frigate. He stated that lethal force was to be used if nessacary.

Turning off his terminal, he quickly undressed and approached his bed in the room nearby. He needed sleep and this whole ordeal with Shepard had drained him.

_You've made a big mistake messing with the Council Shepard. And you shall pay for it._

**{Loading...}**

_July 11, 2183_

_1501 hours._

_'Humanity's Sanctum', __Upper Facilty, Cronos Station, Anadius System. _

_Eden Prime War._

_The Illusive Man, First Lieutenant Miranda Lawson._

In the serene darkness of the room, the area being only illuminated by the bright sun of Anadius, the powerful red sun being so impossibly close to the space station. The darkness was interrupted by a puff of smoke erupting, followed by a long stream. The cigar was dropped in an ashtray on the left arm of the chair as a lithe form approached from the shadows.

The white uniformed form of Miranda Lawson came into sight as she stood next to the Illusive Man, her posture one of patience along with urgency. TIM took immediately notice of her as he spoke, taking a swig of his whiskey.

"Have we heard anything about Shepard? And how is operative Taylor?" TIM requested, placing the drink back on the right arm of his chair, bringing up a holographic display before his chair.

"Sergeant Major Taylor is healing well and will be back to operational status within a week," Miranda reported, "As for Shepard, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. He's just popped back up. Mostly on the news."

"Report." TIM stated simply and Miranda raised the datapad for herself to read.

"Apparently he's been branded a traitor by the Council for stealing the Normandy and disappearing into the Terminus Systems. I have agents following information on his location, most stating that he's headed for Ilos."

_Of course he is. _"He's smart; he knows that he doesn't have time to waste convincing the Council to help and has taken things into his own hands. He's taken direct action and that's amendable."

"What do you wish to do, sir?" Miranda asked.

Taking a puff from his cigar, he responded, "Nothing for now. We must leave this up to Shepard; sending commandos to help him would only end in misunderstanding and he is distracted as it is. Now, have agents investigate this possible relationship he has with his quarian engineer. I don't agree with it but I think I may know how we can use it to our advantage."

Miranda was mildly disgusted at the thought of humanity's paragon having a relationship with a suit-rat, but she decided to keep it to herself as she reported to their agents on their tasks, "Anything else sir?"

"Nothing. You are dismissed, Miss Lawson." Nodding, Miranda turned on her heel and left, door closing behind her as the Illusive Man brought up the dossier he had on the quarian machinist.

"So, Tali'Zorah," TIM muttered, exhaling smoke into the quarian's picture, "What exactly have you done to attract such attention to yourself?"

**{Loading...}**

_July 11, 2183_

_2240 hours._

_Mess Hall, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, In FTL inbound for the Refuge System, Pangaea Expanse._

_Eden Prime War._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Petty Officer Second Class Frederick Deve Johnson._

"This is crazy. And by crazy, I mean the crazy I can start to like." Garrus remarked as he took another sip of his bland, dextro-amino drink. Liara laughed at Garrus' comment while Tali simply nodded, taking a sip of her own drink through her induction port; which Garrus uninvitedly called a straw. Bosh'tet.

"We know this is nessacary," Liara added, "We have to stop Saren at Ilos or this war is as good as lost." The trio nodded at Liara's words as they thought silently about the consequences of what they were doing. The Council hated them now; but they would thank them for it later. That's not what scared Tali however.

"Stealing ships back at the fleet is one of the biggest crimes you can commit," Tali added, "It's considered one of the worst offenses you can do and it often ends in exile. Keelah, my father would probably exile me himself if he found out I was on this ship." Garrus raised a brow at this admittal but Liara just smiled.

"Or he'll welcome you as a hero," Liara responded, "Don't worry Tali. We're technically not stealing the ship anyway; the Council never owned it to start with." They all snickered at that and continued sipping their drinks, all stopping to think about the upcoming mission.

"So...we're taking an alliance stealth frigate to strike a world surrounded by an entire geth fleet and a reaper. Anyone want to bet on our chances of success?" Garrus asked.

"They said Virmire was suicide," Tali answered, "We survived that, even if Ashley was lost in the process, we still mostly came out alive."

"But that's exactly it. There is a high chance that one of us won't be returning from this either." That caused the trio to think for a while. Tali was the most vulnerable because of her suit, so she figured she'd be the most likely to die. But what if they all got killed? An entire geth fleet and Sovereign could shoot them out of the sky before they even hit the ground.

"That's alittle pessimistic coming from you Garrus," Kaidan announced as he sat down next to the turian, "Lighten up, dino."

"I'm a realist," Garrus declared.

"I guess that makes me the 'fuck realism' guy," Kaidan stated, "I say we're going to land on Ilos, kick Saren's ass and send Sovereign straight to oblivion. I wouldn't have it any other way." Everyone looked at each other and thought through the sentinel's words. Finally, Tali spoke up.

"B-before my mother...died, she gave me this knife..." Tali then unsheathed her blade and put it on the table, "It was once hers when she had embarked on her pilgrimage," Tali remembered her mother's dying words as she handed the blade to her young daughter, "On it, she put the words "Fight For A Better Future' on it. I never understood what she meant until now."

"She wanted me to fight for a better future not only for the quarian race, but for the galaxy as well," Tali continued, "And that is why I agree with Kaidan," The quarian then stabbed the blade into the table, causing everyone to flinch, "That is why we're going to kick Saren's ass!" Kaidan gave a 'whoo!' at the quarian's declaration and it wasn't long before the rest joined in.

"For Palaven!"

"For Earth!"

"For Thessia!"

"For...Rannoch!"

Looking at each other, they all leaned in, put their hands in the middle, and stated as loudly as they could.

"For the galaxy!"

Everyone looked at them like they were crazy; Johnson just sat their in silence, watching them.

"Wow...talk about brotherhood," He chirped in. Seeing Tali and Liara's looks, he added, "And sisterhood. Damn, Shepard's a miracle worker. He brings you all together and the next thing you know; you have a disfunctional, xeno family!"

"Family is kinda pushing it," Garrus responded, "I'd say Shepard's minions. Me and Tali though..." Tali seemed to freeze up at the mention of her name but calmed down when she heard Garrus' continuation, "We're Team Dextro."

"Really? Team Dextro? What about Viglante Man and Pilgrim Woman? Or maybe, to go the extra stretch, Dextro Force?" Johnson stated.

"You're making us sound like superheroes," Garrus huffed, "Only one of us is the hero here and that's me. Just look at me! I'm beautiful!"

Tali laughed, "Your expectations that low, Vakarian? That comment made me think you were secretly having a relationship with garbage cans."

"Coming from the quarian," Garrus shot back playfully.

"Even a suit-rat knows style," Tali retorted.

"Optimistic Mechanic," Garrus snorted.

"Overly confident viglante," Tali shot back.

"Snipers are still better," Garrus declared.

"Shotguns are more useful!"

"The longer the distance, the safer you are!"

"The closer you are, the more certain they're dead!"

The others just continued to laugh at Garrus and Tali's bickering until they finally stopped, to which the group split up to return to their duties; Kaidan to his new place in the armoury, Garrus to calibrating the Mako, Tali to...doing nothing, Liara to medical and Johnson to his requisition storage area.

Tali just aimlessly walked around the ship, unsure of what to do. According to Adams she was still technically relieved of duty and by the time she was clear for it again, she would be most likely landing on Ilos. So for now, she had nothing to do. The curfew cycle was scheduled to begin in ten minutes and everyone would be headed to their sleeper pods. She had wanted to get in ten minutes early, but something was stopping her.

As she finished walking around the ship's CIC, she finally realized why; she didn't want to sleep in the pods, she wanted to sleep with Marcus. His invitation to his cabin had been very surprising to Tali and she had to think through it very carefully. But why? Marcus was her boyfriend; why not jump on the oppurtunity? Because it felt wrong.

Even on the fleet, unionmates rarely got to sleep with each other due to the cramped living spaces; they always slept in another area. On rare occassions, and mostly with Admirals or Conclave members or even captains, people could sleep alongside their unionmate but as stated, that was incredibly rare and usually never occured.

It felt selfish to do something her own people couldn't; but what was the harm? This wasn't the fleet; this ship had so much room and it wouldn't hurt for her to simply sleep with the man she loved, especially if it was only for one night. The coming mission scared her; she was afraid she might never make it out.

She wanted to be able to sleep along her boyfriend; to be enveloped in his warm embrace and at least feel safer knowing Marcus was there for her and the rest of them. She might not make it out, but the thought of being able to sleep with him at some point suitless would be motivation enough to win. That was all the incentive the young quarian needed.

With renewed confidence, the engineer walked down the stairs and through the mess hall, only to end up at the captain's quarters and do nothing but stare blankly at the door. _Should I really do this? What if he's doing work? What if I interrupt him from important work? _Before her mind could register anymore of this constant objections, she lightly rapped on the door.

Before her mind took control again however, Marcus' voice came through, "Enter". She knew not to be so rude as to just walk away so, having made her decision, she opened the door and stepped inside. There, to the right of the doorway, sitting at his terminal, was Marcus, smiling up at her.

"Oh Tali, hi, I was just typing up some reports." Marcus informed her as he turned off his terminal and turned to face her, "What can I do for you?"

Finding a new interest in her fingers, she answered, "I...just wanted to ask if you're...um...still willing to let me..." She then looked at Marcus' bed. The spectre followed her gaze before turning towards her again, smiling even wider.

"Of course, the door is always open for you. I don't want to rush you into anything..."

Stopping her play of fingers, she looked directly at him and without thinking, climbed into his lap, latching herself onto him like a child would a mother and looking him in the eyes, "Of course! I want this, I just didn't want you to think I was being selfish..."

Marcus laughed, "You? Selfish? You're the most unselfish person I've ever known." Tali felt butterflies in her stomach at Marcus statement of words and she suddenly dug her head under his neck, nuzzling him. She hadn't gotten this intimate with him since their sudden embrace on the crew deck. It felt good; ignore the suit seperating her from proper skin contact and it was the most euphoric moment she had ever felt.

The two of them just sat there in the peaceful silence of the room; the slight thrum of the Normandy in FTL being the only sound heard, along with their light, barely hearable, breathing. Both of them relished in the moment, both of them enjoying it. Before long, Marcus' voice pierced the silence.

"I suddenly feel sleepy now," Marcus stated, punctuating his statement with a short giggled as she let go of him and stood up, moving away from him as he stood up and rubbed his eyes. He looked at his terminal before looking at Tali, "I've got work I really should do."

"O-okay," Tali sighed and reluctantly began leaving the room when she felt Marcus' strong grip on her arm. Turning around to face him, she saw his warm smile, "Doesn't mean I will." Smiling, Tali let Marcus guide her to the bed before he let go and lay on it, Tali slowly, and hesitantly, following him until they lay, side by side, on the bed; Tali left, Marcus right.

Both of them looked aimlessly at the ceiling, having no idea what to do next. After a few minutes, Marcus made the first move and wrapped an arm around Tali's waist, pulling her closer to him until she wrapped her own arms around him, holding him close as they looked into each other's eyes.

The embrace lasted a couple more minutes before Marcus wrapped the covers around them, Tali barely noticing the sudden added warmth as she just curled in closer to him. She wanted to stay awake, but it was a losing battle as her eyes began to feel very heavy. Marcus began to slowly and gently rub the back of her hood before planting a kiss on her visor. Trying to return the favor, she sufficed with tapping her visor to his forehead.

Whispering softly, he said, "Goodnight, Tali." With that, Tali knew her battle to stay awake was lost and succumbed to sleep, but not before whispering back, "Goodnight, Marcus." With that, the beacons of light that represented Tali's eyes winked out of existence as her eyes closed, the quarian falling fast asleep.

Marcus had considered slipping out to take a shower, but he had decided to leave it till morning. Not only was he too comfortable to move, but he didn't want to wake Tali by accident. She looked so peaceful when she slept, snoring put aside, although he found that pretty cute. With a quiet sigh, he flicked the light off, leaving the room in total darkness. Lying next to his quarian girlfriend, he held her close as he too succumbed to sleep. That night, he dreamt things.

It wasn't the visions that haunted him however.

This time, he thought of his family. He thought of Tali too.

**{Loading...}**

_July 11, 2183_

_2413 hours._

_VICINITY UNKNOWN. DATA NOT COMPLETE ENOUGH TO PROVIDE LOCATION ALLOCATION._

_Eden Prime War._

_IDENTITY UNKNOWN. DATA NOT COMPLETE ENOUGH TO PROVIDE PROPER IDENTIFICATION._

The only sounds in the room that could be heard was the subtle tapping of a holoscreen and the gunshot of a pistol. Down came the salarian's body, his body a jarred mess as it tumbled down the stairs.

"Remove it." An intimidating voice answered, low and threatening. The mysterious figure's adjutants carefully removed the dead salarian, afraid to piss off their master. Once the door registered as shut, a puff of smoke left the figure's mouth, a smile coursing along their face. A hand flickered over the orange holoscreen once again, panels of information flicking across the screen in mere seconds.

One file caught the figure's eye. Tapping it to open it, they see a file on Marcus L. Shepard, sent by none other than one of the figure's agents on the field. Checking the file, they see some very interesting things indeed. The figure would have to keep a close eye on this. With a snuff of a cigarette, the file was put into storage and the terminal shut off.

Eying the opposite wall, the figure just smiled large and brightly. Sending a request for their agents to keep a close eye on Shepard's ship, the figure took a sip of their drink and let it tap the bench again before rapping their fingers on the bench.

Information was virtue in the galaxy and the mysterious figure was the top of it all.

The Shadow Broker simply smirked.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_0832 hours._

_Captain's Quarters, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Entering Refuge System, Inbound for Ilos._

_Eden Prime War. _

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard._

Tali woke up to the sound of running water. The quarian's eyes slowly opened as she surveyed her surroundings. The light had been turned back on and she was still under the bed covers, her head tucked neatly on one of the pillows. She noticed that Marcus no longer lay next to her, but was missing. Again, she heard the sound of running water and noted he was in the shower.

She sat up and moved the covers off of her, moving to sit up. That had to have been the best sleep she had had since the start of their mission. She lay a hand and tried to feel the thick blankets inbetween her fingers, but she sighed as she knew the gloves of her suit prevented this. The light was dim and as she turned to the bedside clock, she noted that the chrono said '0834 hours.' Knowing they had less than two hours until they reached Ilos, Tali crawled out of bed and was about to leave when she noted the sound of water running had stopped.

The door to the shower cubicle opened and Marcus stepped out, fully dressed in his N7 combat armor, Diamond Back in his right hand's grip while his pistol, shotgun and sniper rifle were already attached to his armor. His helmet rested in his left hand's grip. He smiled as he looked up at the engineer.

"Tali, you're awake," Marcus noted as he attached his assault rifle to the back of his armor and began fitting on his helmet.

"You didn't wake me." Tali responded.

Making sure his helmet was fitted on properly, he shrugged his shoulders, "You looked tired and you were too peaceful for me to wake up. I just decided to wake you up after I took a shower. Obviously, as I can see, that won't be nessacary." Moving closer, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. Tali leaned into the embrace and smiled at him behind her mask.

"Thanks," Tali answered, "We've got two hours until we hit Ilos. This is it isn't it?" Tali asked, looking directly into Marcus' eyes.

"Yes it is," Marcus answered and then paused as he realized what that meant, sadness entering his eyes, "And you're pilgrimage will be over. You won't need to stay aboard anymore."

"What do you mean..." Then Tali realized what he meant. Tali had promised she would stay with Marcus until Saren was defeated, then she would return to the fleet to complete her pilgrimage and hand over the geth data as her gift. She would most likely never see Marcus again.

"But you need to return to the fleet," Marcus added, "They're your people and I have no right to keep them from you. I'm just being selfish." Out of instinct, Tali did the unexpected. She placed her finger on his lips and he seemed to immediately quieten as he looked at her; exchanging glances between her eyes and her finger.

"I'm sure I can find a loophole that'll allow me to stay," Tali reassured the spectre and then lay her head on his shoulder, sighing, "Someway. My father won't allow it, but I think Gerrel and Shala could be convinced. Shala respects my opinion and Gerrel would be impressed by the amount of geth you killed."

Marcus chuckled, "Looks like you're pretty set on staying. You don't have to stay if you don't have to."

Tali shook her head, "You're...the first man I've actually had a thing for. That I've...fallen in love with. I want this to work and for us to do this we can't be seperated by ships. Don't worry, a loophole shall be found." With that, the two of them seperated heading for the door. Tali exited first, checking to see if anyone could see them and then walked out, Marcus following behind her.

The Mess Hall was empty; not a person in sight. Well, main shifts weren't meant to start until 0900, but he usually woke up earlier to get some work done, have breakfast and clean his armor, followed by a shower. The mission to Ilos had him skipping most of that, but he grabbed a quick breakfast bar from one of the containers, chucking the disgusting food into his mouth and chewing quickly. He passed a tube of nutrient paste to Tali, who took it graciously and also chowed through it quickly.

Climbing the stairs into the CIC, Marcus immediately approached the cockpit, seeing Joker sitting in it. The pilot's snoring could be heard from the start of the flight deck and when Marcus reached his chair, he shook the pilot awake gently. Startled, the pilot flinched and looked up to see Marcus, immediately calming down and straightening his shirt.

"Commander," Joker addressed, bringing up his terminal.

"Inform all ground-team members to report to the debriefing room." Marcus ordered.

Joker nodded, activating his omni-tool and sending the required messages before shutting it down and asking, "We're two hours out from Ilos. Why debrief them this early?" Joker's yawn was heard by both of them, loud and long before he quickly closed his mouth out of respect.

"Get them ready," Marcus answered, clicking his tongue, "You know how I work." With that, he motioned for Tali to follow him to the debriefing room. Joker just shrugged as he returned to work, relieving the VI of control over the ship's functions, taking control once again. God he loved the Normandy.

Entering the debriefing room, Marcus took the center and Tali immediately took her seat at the end of the right row. Ten seconds later, Liara joined them followed by Kaidan. After another minute of waiting, Wrex and Garrus made their entrance and took their seats, Marcus beginning his debriefing.

"Okay everyone, this is it. This is where it ends. At Ilos." Marcus announced, his team looking at him with a stern expressions; all of them ready to confront the impossible. They were to expect heavy resistance and what was left of the frigate's marine attachment would be joining them on the surface.

"I don't have to tell you the stakes, but I will," Marcus declared, "We're facing galactic extinction, defeat _is not_ an option. If Saren finds the conduit, the entire galaxy as we know it it screwed. He will be bring back the Reapers and destroy us all. That is why it is essential we know what we're facing."

"We'll be facing an entire geth fleet worth of geth ground forces, so I hope you are all ready. We land and we'll be right in the thick of it. Keep your heads low, your fingers on their triggers, and we all get out of this in one piece. Understood?" Marcus asked and the entire group nodded.

"Ilos is basically one giant prothean city," Marcus announced, "So we should expect close quarters fighting, so I want all of you prepared to face hoppers and the lot. Be prepared for armatures or colossi, but I doubt we'll be hearing much from them at any rate. Are you all clear on what we need to do?" Marcus asked and everyone nodded. He saw Tali out of the corner his eye lean in and whisper into Garrus' ears.

"Want a shotgun?" Tali asked smugly.

"Shut up. Just...shut up." Garrus muttered, looking defeated.

"Oh come on Vakarian, you know you want one." Wrex added. Marcus turned to the conversation with a smile, his hands in parade rest.

"No." Garrus stated clearly.

"What if I gave you a direct order to do so?" Marcus asked, a mischevious grin creasing his features.

"Are you all ganging up on me?" Garrus asked, looking at all three of his adversaries, his stern look telling all that he refused to even set eyes on a shotgun, let alone use one. Marcus crossed his arms with a chuckle, everyone in the room laughing, including Liara and Kaidan.

"Oh come on! Liara! Kaidan! You don't even use shotguns!" Garrus stated clearly, while trying to keep the look of annoyance off his face.

"No, I don't," Kaidan assured the turian before bursting out laughing again, "But orders are orders!" That got everyone laughing again and Garrus just lay his head in his palm, clearly having given up on all forms of persuasion.

"Don't worry, Garrus," Marcus assured the turian, "No shotguns shall be given to you. You will be safe from touching shotguns."

Tali gave a huff as she crossed her own arms and Wrex conceded to her judgment, also huffing as he leaned back. Tali snarkily commented, "And I was thinking that the bosh'tet had some compassion for shotguns. You are racist!"

"Guns aren't even a race!" Garrus shot back.

"Gun...ist?" Wrex responded.

Garrus rolled his eyes and sighed, "Fine! Racist it is!"

The banter continued for a few more minutes before they began piling out of the room to finish off whatever tasks they were doing before heading for the cargo hold. Marcus knew this was where it would end. It had to end here. Either they stopped Saren now.

Or they would die trying.

**"Ilos seemed...very intense. But we both know that isn't the case. We both experienced what happened there."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"Just who are you?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"That's classified. Answer the given statement."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"Whatever. Look, if we both know what happened there, then why are you asking me how it felt?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"I'm not you."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

* * *

**Okay, I've got some things I desperately need to fix up. **

**1. The Orizaba is a killmanjaro-class dreadnought, not an everest-class.**

**2. The Einstein is a Heavy Carrier, not a light frigate.**

**3. The Systems Alliance Navy has Eight Fleets in total, not five.**

**That's all I can address at this moment. **

**For you people who know your history, I am fully aware that battleships, destroyers and corvettes don't exist as a ship classification in the mass effect universe but I shall respond with this. WELCOME TO FANFICTION.**

**So, we're coming close to the end. Are you ready? Well then, Ilos, coming right up!**


	32. Chapter 26 Methods of Fate

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:**

**METHODS OF FATE**

_July 12, 2183_

_1013 hours._

_Archives Main Entrance, Archives Control Checkpoint, Unknown Prothean City Ruins, Ilos._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Ilos._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus' and Saren's glares met each other in midflight. The Normandy's cargo hold disappeared from view as the Mako thrusted out of the frigate, gliding towards the bunker. Saren, along with his single corps of geth and krogan troops, were moving inside the bunker and were almost fully inside when the Normandy arrived. The last armature and colossus managed to get inside, before Saren himself joined them, the large blast door slamming shut.

An entire corps; that was twenty to forty-five thousand geth and krogan down there. Saren had an invasion force; but for what? The Mako slammed into the ground and after hitting the breaks; the nose nudged the now sealed shut blast door. Cursing, he signalled for the marines to step outside and secure the area while his team came out behind them.

Just as he moved towards the hatch, he could hear the gunfire from both his marines and the geth outside. Apparently Saren had left behind a rear guard. He could hear the sergeant shouting out orders to his men over the gunfire, Marcus doing the same as he ordered his squad into cover.

The area the Mako had landed in was a CQB heaven; giant, ten ton blocks flanked the sides of the ten meter wide area, with the blast door being behind them and the checkpoint ahead of them. The main entrance out of this area was flanked by two large blocks, leaving only two meters of room to fit through. Unfortunately for them, six geth platforms, shock trooper-class were flooding through that entrance.

As he ordered his team to lay down suppressing fire on the geth as he and the marines moved up, he noticed just how right Liara and Tali were about this place; the place looked like one, huge, graveyard. Skyscrapers that once towered above Ilos' clouds were now reduced to rubble, now little more than 130 feet in height. Courtyards that once shined with beauty and were probably once teaming with prothean life were now empty, lifeless and overgrown.

What was more disturbing was the plantations; vines and plants of all sorts had grown over the structures; buildings, blocks and the lot were covered in moss, insect life and vines of all sorts, just adding to the feel of a creepy, abandoned planet. For all they knew, this could have been the prothean homeworld. His thoughts were brought back to the present as his marines announced they were in position. With a wave of his hands, the marines and himself bombarded the shock troopers.

A warp field formed in Marcus' hand and took the lead platform in the chest, shields flaring and evaporating in an instant as dark energy ate through the shock trooper's circuitry, leaving it destroyed and lifeless. The air was filled with tungsten rounds as the geth were pummeled from all sides, shotgun, pistol and assault rifle rounds ripping the geth to shreds. When the fire died down, all six of the shock troopers lay defeated.

"Juliett Five, move up. Scarab, rear defense, cover." Marcus ordered and watched as the fireteam moved up, followed by Wrex as they squeezed through the hole. Once through, he ordered the rest of the teams through before leading the last three through himself. They found themselves in a large clearing; a garage like structure directly ahead of them with a single large block in the middle. Debris littered the area and was flanked with plant-covered staircases.

"All this history, all these ruins, I could lose myself in this place," Liara stated in awe, looking up into the grey clouds of Ilos; forever casting a dull outlook on the long lost world; it's inhabitants cries of joy forever silenced.

"Stay focused," Marcus ordered as he kept his rifle level. They had to find a way to open that blast door and do it quickly. Suddenly, a familiar whirring sound could be heard as he spun on his heel to see an armature emerge from the garage structure.

"Tango, Uniform, Alfa, defense positions, lay fire on it! Juliett, Romeo, Oscar, scramble!" Marcus barked and the numerous fireteams followed their commander's orders, evading a blast from the armature's siege pulse. Marcus was surprised by the lack of a squad escort; but right now, he didn't care. The less geth in their way, the better.

Holstering his assault rifle, he equipped his spectre shotgun and made a beeline for the geth tank, trying to draw it's attention. He fired slug after slug into the armature's legs until he was finally in a position to blow one of them off. Firing, one of the slugs bypassed the shields and embedded itself in the turbines of the leg. The armature's optics finally focused on the spectre, but before it could charge a siege pulse, a sniper round blasted the optics apart, Garrus howling in victory.

"Sniper gets the winning kill!" Garrus howled and laughed, giving a smug grin to Marcus. A shotgun shot could be heard and as Garrus turned around, he saw a geth fall to the ground, dead. Tali walked past, shotgun in hand, smiling smugly behind her mask. Knowing noone could see it, she just leaned on her left hip while holding her gun upright.

Garrus sighed heavily, "Let's get moving" he mumbled.

With the armature defeated, they continued down the nearest staircase and descended into the bowels of the city. When they reached the bottom, all they saw was a large chasm leading under the chasm and further into the city; possibly having been a river but now sucked dry.

"Contacts! We've got hoppers!" Tali shouted, bringing up her omni-tool and unleashing her overload program on a hopper that leapt at her, finishing it off with a shotgun round. The rest of the hoppers were easily dealt with, allowing them to continue. This confused Marcus. _Saren didn't leave much of a rear guard. A matter of fact, the geth are hardly putting up a fight. They just throw themselves at us hoping to get the jump. Makes sense to take the bulk of his force with him to find the Conduit, but why leave a poor rear defense? And just where the hell is Sovereign? _Too many questions, not enough answers.

Another eery thing about Ilos; it was dead silent. Not a single sound could be heard except for the slight crunching off boots on vine. No animals trailed the city, no weatherly effects, nothing. Just silence. It was times like this he wished someone would fire a weapon; anything to stop the dead silence that so easily creeped him out beyond belief.

Finally, having crossed the chasm, they arrived at the otherside to where they found what looked like an entrance to the control checkpoint. That is what they needed to get inside. The door was mostly sealed shut; the protheans obviously having used red and green panels as well, except these came in a form similiar to the geth's; a holographic panel centered in the middle of the door. Ordering Tali to hack open the door, Marcus and his team protected her. Fireteam Romeo, being all techs, assisted Tali in her work, but she didn't need it.

The red inferface flashed green and slid open, a geth destroyer waiting for them. One of the techs threw Tali out of the way as it took the full brunt of the platform's pulse shotgun blast, his body being ripped to shreds by the impact. The rest of Romeo tried to retaliate, but were thrown aside by the destroyer's charge. Strength met strength as the destroyer raised it's shotgun to kill Marcus, only to be thrown into the wall by Wrex's biotics and then finished off by the krogan's shotgun.

Shaking his head, he helped Tali up and proceeded into the dark interior of the base's control checkpoint. It was as he described; dark, covered in vines and utterly silent. It was clear that nothing had disturbed the decaying corridors for over fifty thousand years. They may not have constructed the Citadel or Mass Relays, but the protheans did build things to last. These buildings had survived the passage of time pretty well, even if they were overrun with vegetation.

One of the doors as jammed by vines and seemed to have been trying to close, but Marcus made short work of that by ripping the door of it's hinges with his biotics. The room was large; something like a library. This had to be the checkpoint area. Six statues; three on each side, stood tall and flanking the sides of the room, all holding unusual weapons infront of them. So these were the protheans.

Their look was more insectiod than he expected; their heads looked triangular from the front, but in essence where pretty unusual. They were rounded on the top, curved like an upside down smile and pointed at the back. They had two pairs of eyes like the batarians, except these eyes were horizontally aligned, with dual pupils and they seemed to blink horizontally.

Like most races in the galaxy, the protheans had three fingers on each hand but had two toes. The prothean wore armor that was remiscent of human sumarai; crimson red with yellow lines streaking over their outlook, two overly large shoulder plates flanking their arms along with a lower section that looked like an armoured skirt. These were Protheans.

"They're...more insect like...than I imagined." Garrus commented and everyone nodded in agreement.

Looking ahead, they saw the checkpoint; a large glass panel illuminating the room, two stairwells at it's side. Before they could approach however, he stood frozen at the sight of four armatures sitting inbetween the statues. Luckily, they were deactivated and unmoving. Before he could be relieved however, the sound of a gunshot was heard followed by the falling body of a dead marine. A geth prime, leading a squad of geth troopes and two juggernauts, stormed into the room and opened fire on the squad, all of them scrambling for cover.

Marcus already had an idea for taking them out however. Looking at Tali, he motioned for her to hack the armatures and get them to focus on the geth while they infiltrated the checkpoint. Nodding, Tali opened her omni-tool and hacked into all four of the geth tanks, activating them one by one. Optics glowed bright as the armatures stood up, facing their allies and opening fire. Four siege pulses ripped the prime apart, the platform exploding before the platforms focused on the rest of the geth forces.

His squad however, managed to sneak past the geth and up the stairs, to where they found an unexpected sight; a holographic interface was still opertional. A sphere of flickering energy flashed before them, mechanical rumbles eminating from the hologram. It was obviously damaged severely, so instead of trying to deactivate it, Marcus moved forward to open the blast door.

Before he could think of a way to open the door; as it was in prothean, the letters immediately translated to english. _How is that possible! The translator doesn't have prothean in it..._Then he realized it. The cipher, once again, was giving him knowledge of the prothean language. It wasn't translated; his mind perceived it as english when it was actually still in prothean.

Tapping a few buttons and overriding security protocols, he knew he had opened the blast door and turned to leave when the glowing, malfunctioning sphere actually spoke.

"Cannot stop..." Marcus raised a brow at that. This sphere must have been some kind of prothean VI construct.

"It spoke but I can't understand it. It was in somekind of language I've never heard of before." Liara stated and Marcus knew the cipher was at work again.

"The cipher is helping me understand what it's saying," Marcus stated, "I can understand it."

"Unstoppable...too many...worlds have fallen...cannot be stopped..."

Marcus shook his head, "It's too damaged to get anything useful out of it. Let's go." With that, they turned and left to return to the bunker entrance, the VI's words that last thing on his mind.

"Too many...indestructible...matter of time...found...Conduit...all is lost! Cannot be stopped...cannot be STOPPED!"

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1057 hours._

_Exit Tunnel, Archives, Unknown Prothean City Ruins, Ilos._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Ilos._

_Prophet Saren Arterius._

"Victory is at hand." Saren declared as he and his geth/krogan army approached the object that was the Conduit. It was beautiful. It was the key to his salvation and the galaxy's damnation. He had already given Sovereign and the rest of the geth fleet the all clear to prepare. Today was the day that the galaxy realized that they were not the masters of the galaxy. It was time for them to bow down to their true rulers or be destroyed.

_If only that fool had listened. If only he had joined me. He and his comrades could have been spared the coming harvest. But he had to stick to his foolish ideals. But I am not weak, I am pure, I am perfected. The galaxy will have to realize through sheer brute force just who is the true inheritors of the galaxy. The protheans realized this too late and paid dearly for it. My people won't share that fate; not while I'm alive. Sovereign promised._

He had to remind himself that Sovereign was a machine. Machines didn't keep promises. Saren shook that voice from his head. _No, Sovereign's words are true. The Reapers will arrive and Palaven shall be spared; Thessia and Sur'Kesh as well if they are loyal to their word. When the Conduit activates and the Reapers arrive, the Council will beg to be spared. And when that happens, Sovereign will have his ultimate and total victory._

The screeching sounds and battle cries of his geth servants and krogan battlecommanders announced that they had arrived at their destination.

"Excellent. Now, get six colossi to guard the Conduit. Shepard won't waste time breaking through that blast door. I don't want him to try and stop us when we head through." Acknowledging the spectre's command, one of the geth primes informed six of the geth heavy platforms to perform Saren's orders, the giant tanks slowing moving towards their assigned tasks; stop Shepard from stopping him.

With a final sigh, Saren breathed in a final breath of Ilos' air before leading his minions towards the Conduit. Victory Day was at hands. The time of the Reaper's return was imminent. The Harvest was about to begin.

_See if you can stop me Shepard._

Saren approached the Conduit and measured it's full height. It was massive beyond belief and he smiled at the thought of it. The giant beacon was just so full of majesty that it made the turian kneel in awe. To think so beautiful could hold the key to such destruction. Closing his eyes, Saren equipped the geth pulse rifle from his back and stood there as he felt a wave of energy flood over him.

And then, within an instant, it was over.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1057 hours._

_Archives Main Entrance, Archives Control Checkpoint, Unknown Prothean City Ruins, Ilos._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Ilos._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

The team ran back through the two meter wide entrance as they saw the blast door was indeed open. The Mako's hatch, still wide open, invited them to jump inside. What was left of the marines rushed in, which was only four of them. The others had been killed when they had tried to evade the four armatures that had overcome Tali's hack. Marcus quickly followed, along with his squad and the hatch fell shut behind them.

Strapping himself into the driver's seat, Kaidan took the gunnery position and Tali strapped herself into the engineering seat. With everyone strapped and ready, Marcus turned to Tali and smiled. She smiled back and seeing that noone was looking but Kaidan, who already knew, Tali took Marcus' hand and squeezed. He smiled even wider as she then let go and the two of them faced ahead.

"Everybody ready to end this?" Marcus asked.

"Damn right we are!" Garrus cheered.

"Let's send a boot up Saren's ass!" Wrex bellowed, slapping Garrus on the back.

"Save one for me!" Kaidan added.

"Um...singularities anyone?" Liara asked and everyone laughed as the Mako acellerated forward and into the bunker. The ground was overrun with grass and had been for a long time. The first thing to come meeting them was a overly curious geth juggernaut, but he didn't last long as the Mako simply ran over it, continuing on it's track through the bunker and towards Saren.

_Got to get to Saren before it's too late._

As the alliance tank finished it's descent, the Mako suddenly entered a large, untouched corridor; it was 40 meters from the ceiling and 20 from the walls, so it was more of a canyon. Lined up along the walls were what he guessed were sleeper pods; millions of them must have been lined up along here. He saw the prothean word 'Archives' pasted along the walls.

"These must be prothean archives of some sort," Liara added, as if on que.

"They are," Marcus answered, "Says on the wall."

The corridor seemed to go on forever, the only form of resistance being from rocket troopers, snipers or shock troopers; nothing really threatening. Finally, as if sensing their boredom, they reached another ramp which seemed to be covered in vines. Why were some covered and others not? Were there breaches in the wall? That didn't matter. Stopping Saren should be the only thing on his mind.

Once again, the only resistance on this ramp was a fireteam of trooper-class units and they were dealt with quickly. The Mako, once again, broke out into another corridor full of sleeper pods but this time, there was an orange glow up ahead.

"Ancestors, what is that?" Apparently Tali had seen it as well. The orange light drew closer and when they were within a 100 meters of it, they saw it was some of kind of orange forcefield. Not taking the chance of the field being solid, Marcus hit the breaks and the Mako stopped. Ordering them to stay put, he leapt out of the hatch and moved towards the field, fascinated by it.

He reached out a hand and touched it, letting out a wince as his glove came back singed. Definitely solid. Trying to drive through that would incinerate the Mako and all it's passengers. Apparently however, noone had heeded his orders.

Garrus spoke up, "Saren must have laid this trap for us. How the hell do we get around it?"

"I don't think Saren did this," Liara added and everyone looked at her. _What if she was right? What if it's just some old prothean security systems kicking in? No, that would mean Saren would be trapped with us. But what turned on this? It has to be Saren. There's no other way it could have-_

"Commander, look!" Kaidan shouted and he turned to his right to see a door in the side opening seemingly of it's own accord. It was the door to an elevator. He hesitated for a second, fearing that Saren might be toying with them; herding them. But his gut told him to go. To investigate.

"Tali, Garrus, Liara, you're with me," Marcus ordered, "Wrex, Kaidan, stay with the vehicle." The two of them acknowledged his orders and returned to the Mako, while the others followed Marcus into the elevator as it's doors closed and it began it's descent. As it did, windows opened on the sides to show even more sleeper pods alligning the walls. Just how many were there?

When the elevator completed it's diagonal descent, the doors opened to reveal a single bridge leading to the end of a room alligned with sleeper pods. Vines grew over what must have been a control console and another sphere, exactly like the one from the checkpoint, was situated there. They cautiously approached it, but Liara was infront of it in seconds. He was surprised that it didn't attack. Convinced, Marcus stood before it, Liara practically leaping in delight at the prospects of more artefacts to examine.

Before he could say anything, a VI voice rose up from the sphere, clearly an VI, but not as damaged as the one from the checkpoint, "You are not Prothean. But you are not machine either. This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. This is why we sent our warning through the beacons." Marcus raised a brow at the VI but was even more surprised by his team's response.

"Wait, how can I understand it?" Tali asked and the others nodded their heads in agreement. The VI was speaking in english, it had to be.

The VI's response was monotone, "I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you. Unlike the other that passed recently. Perhaps there is still hope." Marcus crossed his arms at the fact that the VI had dodged Tali's question but if the quarian was annoyed by it, she made no indication of it. The quarian's reiterated question was as calm as the first.

"You haven't answered my question. How can you understand us?" Tali asked.

"I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived at this facility. I have translated my output into a format you will comprehend." Marcus seemed satisfied with that answer as did everyone else.

"My name is Vigil," The VI continued, "You are safe here, for the moment. But that is likely to change. Soon, nowhere will be safe." Marcus nodded in understanding of Vigil's words. Everyone understood that. The Reapers would destroy them all if Saren and Sovereign weren't stopped.

"Are you some kind of artificial intelligence?" Liara asked.

"I am an advanced non-organic analysis system with personality imprints from Ksad Ishan, chief overseer of the Ilos Research Facility." Vigil responded.

Getting to the point, Marcus asked, "Why did you bring us here? You put up a forcefield and then herded us here. What is our purpose in this room?"

"You all must break a cycle that has continued for billions of years," Vigil stated, "But to stop it, you must understand or you will make the same mistakes we did." Marcus was surprised by the answer. _Mistake? _Before he could ask, Vigil continued, "The Citadel is the heart of your civilization and the seat of government as it was for us, and as it has been for every other civilization that came before us."

"But the Citadel is a trap. The station is actually an enormous mass relay, a control relay if you will. One that links to dark space; the empty void between galaxies." Marcus widened his eyes at the revelation and everyone else seem to stiffen. _So the Reapers are outside our galaxy just waiting to come through? Shit, the Council! They have to be warned!_

"When the Citadel relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through. And all you know...will be destroyed." Vigil finished.

"How come noone noticed the Citadel was an inactive mass relay?" Garrus asked, shocked by the news that the supposed safe haven called the Citadel was actually a damn death trap.

"The Reapers are careful to keep the greatest secrets of the Citadel hidden. That is why they created the species of seemingly benign organic caretakers," Vigil explained, "The keepers maintain the station's most basic functions. They enable any species that discovers the Citadel to use it without fully understanding the technology." Everyone was shocked that the keepers were also a reaper creation, but they listened nonetheless.

"Reliance on the keepers ensures no other species will ever discover the Citadel's true nature. Not until the relay is activated and the Reapers invade." Marcus nodded, remembering Sovereign's words. _The Reapers really do have all of this sorted out. Doesn't explain the other mass relays, but it does explain the Citadel's purpose. It's there way back. But why didn't Sovereign simply have the keepers activate it? Why go to all this trouble to find this Conduit?_

"How do the Reapers survive in dark space? To the best of my knowledge, the space between galaxies is just empty void." Liara asked.

"We had only theories," Vigil responded, "The researchers here came to believe the Reapers enter prolonged states of inactivity to conserve energy."

"This allows them to survive the thousands and thousands of years it takes for organic civilization to rebuild itself. But in this state, they are vulnerable," Vigil continued, "By retreating beyond the edges of the galaxy, they ensure noone will accidentally discover them. They keep their existence hidden until the Citadel relay is activated."

Marcus had to bring this conversation back to the present, "The Reapers can wipe out the Council and the entire Citadel fleet in a single surprise attack!" The urgency in his voice brought everyone back to the present and they tried to contact the Normandy, but there was no answer. Being this deep underground was probably causing it. _Christ, the entire reaper fleet could rip even the Destiny Ascension apart with no trouble at all._

"That was our fate," Vigil responded to the not-question, "Our leaders were dead before we even realized that we were under attack. The Reapers seized control of the Citadel and throught it, the mass relays."

"Communication and transportation between our empire was crippled. Each star system was isolated, cut off from the others. Easy prey for the reaper fleets." Vigil finished with what he could have sworn was sorrow in it's tone. Now Marcus understood the importance of the relays. _Clever strategy. You create the relays, leave them and watch as we become reliant on them. Then, you switch them off like a light switch to a light and the next thing you know, we're clueless. These Reaper bastards are intelligent motherfuckers, but what about the damn Conduit?_

"Over the next decades, the Reapers systematically obliterated our people," Vigil continued, "System by system, world by world, city by city. They methodically wiped us out." Marcu shook his head at the reaper's ruthless tactics. With their unstoppable might, the protheans would have been hopeless to retaliate. To have your people wiped out like pieces on a chess board was just...unimaginable.

"Their fleets advanced across every known region of the galaxy. Some worlds were utterly destroyed while others were conquered, their populations falling to the power of the reaper indoctrination and enslaved. They became the separatists, the reaper's cannon fodder or ground troops if you will. They used our own people against us."

"Certain that all organic life had been wiped out, the Reapers retreated back through the Citadel relay, sealing it behind them, lying in wait until the next reaper invasion. All the evidence of their invasion was wiped away and their indoctrinated agents were left behind. They soon became mindless husks, dying of starvation or decay of their brain matter."

Marcus couldn't shake the one question that had been in his mind from the beginning, "Why are the Reapers doing this? What do they gain from repeating this genocide over and over?"

"The Reapers are alien, an enigma," Vigil answered, "Perhaps they need slaves or resources. More likely, they are driven by motives and goals organics beings cannot hope to comprehend. In the end, does it matter? Your survival depends on stopping them, not understanding them."

"You said you brought us here for a reason," Garrus spoke up, "What do you want us to do?"

"The Conduit is the key," Vigil declared and Marcus felt goosebumps on the back of his neck, "Before the Reapers attacked, we protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind mass relay technology."

"Ilos was a top secret facility. Here, researchers worked to create a small-scale version of a mass relay, one that linked directly to the Citadel; the hub of the relay network." Marcus felt underwhelmed. _The destruction of the galaxy is a prototype relay that links to the Citadel? But why does Sovereign need it!? He could just order the keepers to open the Citadel and be done with it._

"How did you manage to stay hidden?" Liara asked.

"All official records of our project were destroyed in the initial attack on the Citadel. While the prothean empire came crashing down, Ilos was spared." Vigil explained.

"We severed all communication with the outside and our facility went dark. The personnel retreated underground into these archives. To conserve resources, everyone was put into cryogenic stasis. I was programmed to monitor the facility and wake the staff when the danger had passed."

"But the genocide of an entire species is a long, slow process. Years passed. Decades, centuries. The Reapers persisted. And my reserves were dwindling."

"You should have fought instead of abandoning your people!" Garrus shot at the VI.

"We were a few hundred against a galactic invasion fleet," Vigil retorted, "Our only hope was to remain undetected. I began to disable the life support of non-essential personnel. First support staff, then security. One by one, their pods were shut down to conserve energy. Eventually, only the stasis pods of the top scientists remained active. Even these were in danger of failing when the reapers finally retreated back through the Citadel relay."

Liara just looked at Vigil in horror as Tali spoke up, "There were hundreds of stasis pods out there! You just...shut them down? You killed them!" Marcus his agreement as he faced the VI, pointing his finger at it.

"You were programmed to protect them!" Marcus shouted.

"This outcome was not completely unforeseen," Vigil responded, "My actions were a result of continegency programming entered on my creation."

Marcus huffed, "I bet they didn't tell all the 'non-essential' staff about this continegency."

"I saved key personnel. When the Reapers retreated, the top researchers were still alive. My actions are the only reason any hope remains."

"When the researchers woke, they realized the prothean species was doomed. There were only a dozen individuals left, far too few to sustain a viable population," Vigil stated, "Yet they vowed to find some way to stop the Reapers from returning. A way to break the cycle forever. And they knew the keepers were the key."

"I still don't understand what the hell is going on here!" Marcus declared, "Why is this Conduit so important that Saren and Sovereign so desperately need to find it?"

"The Conduit gives him access to the Citadel and the keepers," Vigil responded simply, "The keepers are controlled by the Citadel. Before each invasion, a signal is sent through the station compelling the keepers to activate the Citadel relay."

"After decades of feverish study, the scientists discovered a way to alter this signal. Using the Conduit, they gained access to the Citadel and made the modifications. This time, when Sovereign sent the signal to the Citadel, the keepers ignored it. The Reapers are trapped in dark space."

Marcus gave a smug grin at that. _So all we have to do is stop Saren from realtering the signal and we can stop the Reapers from returning! _But then something clicked in his head.

"But Saren must have some plan to undo everything you did." Marcus stated.

If Vigil could nod, it would now, "The one you call Saren will use the Conduit to bypass the Citadel's defenses. Once inside, he will transfer control of the station to Sovereign. Sovereign will override the Citadel's systems and manually open the relay. And the cylce of extinction...will begin again."

Marcus wasn't going to give up. He had to get to the Conduit and get to the Citadel and stop Saren. If he didn't, the galaxy was as good as doomed. If he was going to give control of the citadel to Sovereign, then there was no doubt in his mind the reaper would be there. Another problem they would have to deal with.

"Is there anyway we can stop them?" Marcus asked.

"There is a data file in my console," Vigil answered, "Take a copy when you go. When you reach the Citadel's master control unit, upload it to the station. It will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give you temporary control over the station. It might give you a chance against Sovereign."

Garrus then spoke up, "Now wait just a second. Master Control Unit? I've never heard of anything like that."

"Through the Conduit. Follow Saren. He will lead you to your destination."

It was Liara's turn for the questions, "Wait, if the Reapers are trapped in dark space, how did Sovereign get here?"

"It is logical to think the Reapers would leave one of their own behind after each extinction; a sentinel to pave the way for their envitable return. A...vanguard. Like those in dark space, Sovereign probably spent most of the last 50,000 years in a state of hibernation. Periodically, it would wake to analyze the situation."

"Keeping it's existence hidden, it would evaluate the state of galactic civilization. And, when the time was right, it would signal the Citadel and usher in the next reaper invasion. But this time, the signal failed. The keepers did not respond. Sovereign's allies were trapped in the void. Alone, it was forced to try and discover what went wrong."

"Sovereign's the largest ship in the galaxy," Tali added, "Why the secrecy? Not not directly assault the Citadel?"

"Sovereign is not invincible. Revealing it's true nature would have united the forces of every organic species against it. Even a Reaper could not survive such odds."

"But the Reapers are patient. They will not rush into the unknown. Sovereign could have been planning this for centuries, moving deliberately, gathering allies. Slowly, it has assembled the pieces of the puzzle, working through agents to keep itself hidden. Saren is the most visible pawn of the reapers, but I doubt he was the first."

"Now Sovereign has grown bold. Whether from confidence or desperation, I cannot say. But it is determined to reopen the portal to dark space."

Marcus pounded his fist into his open palm, "Saren's got enough of a head start. Tali, grab the data and let's go!" Tali nodded and approached Vigil, using her omni-tool to download the data packet before returning to Marcus' side. Before they could leave however, Vigil had one more thing to say.

"The one you call Saren has already reached the Conduit. He has activated it. However, there is still hope if you hurry." Marcus nodded as he continued walking away, and it wasn't long before they stepped on the elevator. They refused to glance at the pods now. The revelation of their true purpose was not something they wished to remember fondly of.

When they finally reached the Mako, they were met by a irritated krogan and a happy sentinel.

"Where the hell have you been?" Wrex grumbled.

"Oh, nowhere," Marcus answered, "Just spoke with a working prothean VI, that's all."

The two look at them like they were insane but shook it away as they followed them back into the Mako. The forcefield deactivated and the vehicle continued on it's path towards the Conduit. The geth resistance was nowhere to be seen, so the trip to the Conduit was undisturbed. When they finally reached it, they saw it was an exact replica of a mass relay, just poking out of the ground.

"Don't have to time to admire the view people!" Marcus barked as he saw the six colossi guarding the relay, "Hold onto your helmets!"

**"And so began the final battle."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"Yes. That is where we handed it to 'em."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"It certainly was. Certainly was..."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**


	33. Chapter 27 Vanguard of our Destruction

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:**

**VANGUARD OF OUR DESTRUCTION **

_July 12, 2183_

_1106 hours._

_Main Bridge, Ascension-Class Dreadnought ARW Destiny Ascension, In Defensive Orbit around Citadel._

_Eden Prime War._

_Captain Matriarch Lidanya, Executive Officer Amiee Kaylos._

Lidanya sunk into the captain's chair of the Destiny Ascension as she took a sip of her coffee. Delightful drinks, the humans had. She still felt sore about losing the Normandy, but she knew her chance for victory would be given sooner than later. She didn't earn command of the Ascension out of looking pretty.

The bridge of the ascension was circular with a captain's chair in the middle with the main panels infront or behind her. Two doors flanked the room to allow quick access in and out of the bridge. Closing her eyes to take a nap, she was woken immediately by the communications officer, Devra, speaking to her.

"Ma'am, we have a problem." Devra announced. The urgency in her voice got Lidanya resting the cup on her chair as she moved to lean over Devra's console.

"What's the problem Devra?" Lidanya requested.

"We've lost contact with the patrol guarding the Hector relay," Devra reported, "They've gone completely silent. They're not responding to tight-beam communications and...wait."

Lidanya froze as she looked at the officer.

"Something's coming through the relay, and it's big. Wait, make that multiple contacts. We've got twenty-seven contacts and counting coming through the relay! Thirty! Thirty-Two! Look at the size of the main contact, it's massive!" Devra exclaimed.

Lidanya immediately headed back to her chair while shouting orders. _Too many ships to be the patrol. It has to be Saren. But how did he get past the patrols? _"Devra, announce battlestations. Fala, give me a clear view of the relay. Devra, alert the rest of the fleet and the Council. Tell them to assume defensive formation and wait for my orders."

Her subordinates performed their tasks and when Lidanya sat in her chair, facing the viewscreen, she saw the widow relay. She watched as the spinning rings began to spin faster and faster, the blue light inside intensifying. _Here they come. _She also watched as numerous turian, salarian and asari cruisers, frigates and destroyers took defensive formation; a turian dreadnought; the Iron Conviction, leading the second half of the fleet, taking point.

"This is Captain Ulik, in position and awaiting orders," The turian voice of the captain of the Iron Conviction stated through the comms.

Nodding, she watched as the first ships popped through the relay. Geth frigates and cruisers shot through the relay and immediately assumed formation. They didn't attack the fleet immediately and seemed to be waiting for something. Then the contact Devra had been referencing to appeared and she widened her eyes in shock, dropping her coffee subconscious, the mug smashing on the floor.

"By the goddess..."

She witnessed the two-kilometer long flagship named Sovereign assume the middle of the geth assault formation and the fleet began to move. By the time she broke out of her awe, she was too late to realize that the geth had already fired. "Ma'am, what do we do!?" Devra shouted.

"Fire! Fire everything we have! All ships, fire at will! Weapons officer, give me firing solutions and give them hell!" Lidanya watched as the Ascension's deadly arsenal hit Sovereign with everything it had, but the geth flagship just moved through like they were insignificant. Sovereign was barely dented by her ship's assault. She then watched as Sovereign turned around, it's legs opening up to reveal a blood red glow eminating. It was charging weapons!

"Hard to port! Hard to fucking port!" Lidanya cried out too late. The ship tried to turn, but a thin, red beam of light erupted from Sovereign's belly and struck the ship's right wing, piercing the shields like they didn't even exist and ripping the Ascension's wing right off. Alarms blared through the ship as Sovereign lifted it's siege, focusing on the rest of the Citadel fleet.

"Status!" Lidanya barked.

"Hull breaches at starboard, decks 15, 14, 13, 12, 11 and 10!" Devra reported.

"Evacuate those sections! Helm, bring us on course vector Sierra-X-Ray-Delta-November. Weapons, prepare the MAC and prepare to target Sovereign again. We are not letting that monster continue this siege!"

"Ma'am! We have a geth heavy cruiser on intercept course!" Devra reported, "The Iron Conviction is taking heavy fire! They require immediate assistance!"

"On speakers! Helm, bring us on course relevant. Arms, keep loading the MAC, I want a firing solution on that enemy ship." A steady round of affirmatives met her ears as Ulik's voice pierced the deck.

"That flagship is all over us!" Ulik reported, "Bring us around! Oh shit, it's coming in for a second attack! Evasive maneveurs! Hard to starboard! Engineering, get us the hell out of here!" Ulik's voice was cut off as the crew watched in horror. Sovereign fired again, a red beam cutting through the turian dreadnought's shields and armor like butter. This was followed by a blinding white flash and when it cleared, they saw that the dreadnought had been completely torn in half. Ulik's comms were dead silent. Sovereign had destroyed the Iron Conviction.

There was little hope for this battle. Sovereign was simple to powerful. This was proven further when Sovereign acellerated through a group of turian heavy cruisers, the geth flagship ramming through three of the cruisers and ripping them to shreds, not leaving a single dent on the ship's hull. A salarian frigate attempted to retaliate, but a geth cruiser made short work of it.

Noticing the Ascension had dealt with the intercepting heavy cruiser, Lidanya immediately stepped towards the comms station.

"Close the Citadel arms!" Lidanya ordered, "Emergency Order, Hotel-Foxtrot, Council Authorization."

"The Citadel arms aren't responding!" Devra shouted back. Hesitating for a second, Lidanya cursed as she ordered the helm to dock with the Citadel.

"Abandon the Citadel! Evacuate the Council! Then we'll bug out. The Council cannot die no matter the cost!" With that, Lidanya retook her seat as the Ascension approached the docking rings. Devra tried to contact Citadel Control, but she was getting no response. Odd, there wasn't any interference, the comms were working fine.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1106 hours._

_Exit Tunnel, Archives, Unknown Prothean City Ruins, Ilos._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of Ilos._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Everyone held on tight as the Mako thundered down the ramp, the Conduit's light dimming. Not only was the Conduit going to lose power soon but the colossi would most likely stop them from getting there in time. Everyone looked ahead with petrified looks and gasped as the Mako leapt off the ramp and straight towards the Conduit. The six colossi defending the prototype relay turned around to attack, but were too slow as the Mako thundered past.

Water and ripped up vegetation was kicked up behind the Mako's powerful wheels as it closed in on the Conduit. The vehicle shuddered as one of the colossi managed to land a hit on the Mako's rear, disabling the shields as Tali desperately tried to compensate. Before she could however, a second siege pulse hit them and the rear of the vehicle exploded in flames, the entire back of the vehicle being ripped off. Luckily, none of his squad had been there. Unfortunately for the marines, they had all been piled up there and were vaporized in the blast.

Their vehicle trailing debris, the Mako hit the Conduit and the team felt a surge of energy shoot through them. Before anything could be said, the Mako shot upward in FTL flight, everything in his vision becoming blue. For a few seconds, that's all they saw. But as fast as it appeared, the blue light disappeared and the familiar floor of the presidium could be seen. The Mako crashed into the ground, crushing two geth troopers as it slammed into a wall.

Dazed but not unconscious, the squad unclip their harnesses and crawl out of the overturned vehicle through the exposed rear, as the hatch was trapped under the vehicle. Every system in the Mako was fried and useless, rendering the vehicle destroyed. The main gun had been damaged too badly to be put back into service and the team steadily abandoned the now-redundant debris.

Once outside, they all saw the receiving relay; it was the mass relay monument. _Shit, who knew. _However, another look around the Presidium made matters much more urgent and current. The once beautiful and serene background was now enveloped in flames; entire structures left devastated while others flamed. The artificial sun generator was disabled and the entire presidium was covered in total darkness, the only source of light being the flames. Sirens ran along the Citadel's perimeter and not a single person was seen. Gunfire roared in the background; both from C-Sec and geth ground forces and the Citadel and geth fleets.

Knowing time was getting short, Marcus raised his weapon and motioned for the others to follow. He scanned the area and fully certain that there were no geth or krogan hostiles to be found, he moved forward. _Now I know why he had an entire corps. He had planned a boarding action of the Citadel this entire time. This station is too large to cover with just a division. _Looking up, he could see through the Citadel's artificial sky and see a geth battleship engaged in ship-to-ship combat with a turian heavy cruiser; the battleship winning out.

He recognized this area of the presidium and knew the elevator to his left would take them to the Citadel Tower. _Of course! It makes perfect sense for the control unit to be in the tower. _He noticed Avina's interface nearby but it was malfunctioning too badly for him to bother questioning it. He motioned them towards the elevator but before he could hit the panel, a low unearthly moan sounded from behind them, followed by several more. Spinning around, weapons raised, the squad came face to face with four husks.

Lifeless eyes stared at them before charging forward, finger tips like razors, ready to rip them apart. His order to fire was barely heard as a stream of staccato fire fell upon the husks; the mindless beasts being shredded by the overwhelming gunfire, all falling like flies. Taking a deep breath through his nostrils, he lowered his weapon and ordered his squad into the elevator before following. Hitting the door panel, he stepped inside and watched as the elevator began it's ascent.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1113 hours._

_Sovereign, Engaging Citadel Defense Forces around the Citadel._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Citadel._

_Sovereign._

My goal is in sight. I see it. I can see it through the eyes of my servant; Saren. I watch as his pistol reports two times, taking the lives of two of the useless keepers. Disobedience is not tolerated. The Reapers have waited long enough. Their patience is about to be rewarded. I watch as Saren's dance over the control panel like puppet strings; my guidance showing him the way. Within moments, the great, monolithic arms of the Citadel begin to close.

"The Citadel arms are closing! They're sealing the station!" A turian voice came over the comm and I silenced it with a blast from my thanix main weapon, the blast ripping the frigate in half despite it's shielding and armor. I watched as the ship they called the 'Destiny Ascension' began to escape the Citadel with it's leaders. With the power of a thought, I ordered half of the immediate forces to attack it.

"Don't let the enemy ships inside the arms!" Another turian voice shouted, this one from a turian light cruiser called the 'Tangent Affairs.' I watch as the cruiser and numerous salarian and asari destroyers gather up in front of me as I approach the Citadel tower. They open fire, they're inferior weaponry merely an itch to my shields. I charge forward, slamming into the Tangent Affairs, barely noticing the explosion as the ship was ripped apart from the impact and slamming through five more destroyers in my way before making full speed towards the tower.

I make it inside the Citadel's arms just before they fully close, trapping the Citadel fleet outside and leaving his geth to deal with them. I noticed one of his geth battleships just escape outside the arms before they closed, sealing the superstation in a solid, impenetrable cacoon. I continue to approach the tower, slowly and steadily. I can feel victory coming. I can smell it's arrival. I am Sovereign. And this station is _mine._

The tower is getting lower and I open my legs, my arms, stretching them out to grasp my victory. In mere seconds, I feel those exact legs cling onto the tower, squeezing my hold until the spire is firmly encased in my legs. Red energy courses through my body as I divert all power from my engines to my weapons, readying all thirty-six of my thanix weapons.

He watched as Saren continued attempting to assert control to me. I wait. It will take minutes, possibly hours, but I wait. The organic ships are but nuisances and whilst inside this impenetrable fortress, I cannot be stopped. This cycle has begun it's end.

I am Sovereign. And this station _is mine._

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1113 hours._

_Maintenance Passage Way, Upper Spire, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Citadel._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Everybody staggered slightly as the elevator shaft shuddered. Making sure everyone was okay, he looked up to see what it was. Seeing one of Sovereign's colossal legs grasping the tower was all he needed to see to know the reaper was way ahead of them and they needed to pick up the pace. He also noticed that it had gotten darker and saw that the Citadel arms were sealed shut, rendering any counterdefense on the Citadel fleet's part moot. It was up to them.

Before he could continue this thought however, the elevator suddenly ceased all movement and they fell to the ground. Seeing a red symbol over the elevator's control panel, he knows that Saren had shut off all power to the elevators. Ordering his team to set their suits to EVA before setting his as well, he raised his rifle and fired.

The shot ruptured the glass of the elevator and it smashed, glass floating out into space. With his team's magnetic boots activated, Marcus stepped outside and into space. Everything went upside down for him as his boots attached him to the outer hull of the tower, along with the rest of his team. He looked up and down the length of the spire; it was huge, they had to have been at least four thousand feet high and they were only the lower part of the upper spire.

Down below as the presidium ring, alight with red as entire structures burned. Looking up, all they could see was the closed wards and Sovereign itself, clasped around the tower's tip. Time was quickly running out and Saren would no doubt have forces moving in to deal with them. Signalling his team to move up, Kaidan took point while Marcus took center.

The section of maintenance they travelled through was straight; nothing but some kind of struts poking out on the right side with the elevator shaft on the left; glass exterior allowing a clear view inside. They moved up, expecting geth or krogan to pop out at any one point but for a moment, nothing did. His squad searched every nook and cranny as they advanced through the steel maintenance area, but nothing came into attack them.

Before he called the order for the all clear, he heard a loud metallic screech of metal grinding against metal. Looking towards the elevator shaft, he saw another elevator screech to a stop next to them, it's emergency breaks activated. The glass exploded as three geth troopers and a krogan warrior leapt out. Before Marcus could react, the krogan had jumped ontop of him and had him pinned to the ground. The others immediately engaged the geth, gunning them down instantly.

With a grunt, Marcus charged with biotics as he threw the krogan off of him and into space. Rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't delusional, he saw that the krogan wasn't wearing a helmet. _Their circulatory systems must filter oxygen and store it. Damn, wish I had that. _He watched as the krogan struggled and wreathed as he floated through space, desperately trying to hang onto life. Seeing that their nemesis was finished, the crew continued on their way towards the top of the tower. According to Tali's scans, Saren was located in the Council Chambers.

He heard the citadel fleet's distress call through his comms and shook his head, knowing the geth were most likely jamming them. As they rounded the corner, they climbed up a ramp taking them into a place that had been under renevations, but was now flooded with geth and krogan. Finding cover, the team immediately ambushed the geth troops. They had taken the synthetics by surprise. _Luckily sound doesn't travel through nothing._

Marcus' diamond back managed to get a geth shock trooper in the optics with it's shields down, downing the platform immediately as he turned his attention to a charging krogan. Sidestepping the huge warrior, he smashed into a wall and Marcus emptied an entire clip's worth of ammo into the krogan's back, killing him instantly. Not allowing the krogan regenerate, he kicked the body into the air and turned back to assist his comrades.

He immediately rolled to the side as a rocket wizzed past his head, bringing up his rifle to scan the immediate area. Spotting the source; a geth rocket trooper, he opened fire and took the geth fully in the chest before firing again it's left leg. The platform fell to the ground, firing a final rocket at Wrex as it fell. The krogan was oblivious. Marcus immediately focused his biotic energy on saving Wrex, a barrier forming around the krogan as the rocket impacted, exploding harmlessly.

He then focused his biotics on picking up the destroyed geth's weapon, which had been destroyed by Garrus', and threw it into the cover of a geth sniper, using his assault rifle to detonate the ammunition in the weapon. It exploded, ripping the sniper apart. Wincing as a pulse rifle shot grazed his shields, Marcus dived into cover and signalled Tali to unleash Chiktika. The combat drone immediately spun into life, diving head on into the geth flank.

"Push forward! Tali, keep behind Wrex!" Marcus barked as his team stood up, weapons raised and unleashed hell on the geth and krogan, pushing forward as they did. It was a risky tactic, but they couldn't afford the time to be pinned down. He was going on the offensive. Tali did as ordered and used Wrex as a shield as she emptied slug after slug into a krogan battlemaster.

When the hail of fire had ended and everyone's weapons had overheated, the geth and krogan were few in number, many having been cut down by the initial assault, causing them to retreat to the ramp leading to the tower's AA defense guns. His team didn't give them the chance to regroup though as once their weapons had cooled down, they opened fire again. Chiktika had long since returned to it's mistress, having done it's job.

The geth were all but destroyed but the last three of the krogan managed to link up with a geth force consisting of a single prime and two destroyers as they steadily advanced. His eyes widened as he shouted into his comm for people to take cover. Just as he ran for cover, he watched Wrex get pounded by two shots from the geth prime's main weapon, his shields getting decimated as Marcus diverted it's attention. It fired at him, the weapon ripping his shields to shreds and hitting his suit.

Taking cover, he paniced as he thought he had taken a suit breach. He looked in horror at something much worse; one of his oxygen tanks had been split wide open, his oxygen spilling out into the void of space. His hands tried to cover the leak, but nothing was working. _I'm not dying like this..._All of a sudden, a three fingered hand came to his aid as the quarian reinserted the loose oxygen tank back into place, giving him the quarian equivalent of a thumbs up as Tali took position next to him.

Nodding at her, he readied his rifle and primed a grenade. _This prime is going to be a tough SOB to take- _He squinted his eyes in annoyance as the prime continued to pound their position with siege pulse fire, attempting to flush them out. Chucking the grenade over his cover, he had made sure to set the grenade to stun before they leapt out of cover. With no plan, they just fired blindly at the geth.

Bullets pummeled the geth prime and it's adjutants, the prime seeming barely fazed as it deployed it's drone to attack them. Marcus took it down with a single burst of his rifle, but the prime had already lowered it's rifle over him. Thinking quickly, Marcus used his biotics to shove the gun upwards, the weapon firing as he did. A single siege pulse round hit the prime's optics with bone-shattering force.

The optics of the platform were torn off completely, bits of curcuitry and wiring flying with it as it exploded in a bright flash, the geth going limp. The rest of his team kept on firing at the geth destroyers and krogan warriors that accompanied it, not noticing the prime as it fell to the ground, destroyed. Laughing half-heartedly at his victory, he assisted the others in wiping the last resistance as they continued.

The area they entered had to be the AA defense guns. Three of the GARDIAN missile batteries littered the area, all inactive. The area was absent of all activity. They slowly moved forward until the large form of a geth dropship loomed over them. Giving a sigh of irritation, he hid behind one of the turrets as the dropship deployed numerous shock troopers and juggernaut platforms, even a few assault drones.

The tower shuddered as Sovereign lifted one of it's legs and dropped it back down, hitting the tower with huge force; it had felt like an earthquake. _Or a Citadelquake...ah, whatever. _Marcus was about to move and engage the enemy soldiers when he saw that the dropship wasn't leaving, instead rearing it's guns on them. _Oh you have to be shitting me!_

Looking for ways to take out the dropship or distract it, he then noticed just what he was hiding behind. _The AA guns...of course! You moron, why didn't you think of that before! _Motioning for Tali to get over to his position, he covered her with suppression fire while she got over to him. He managed to disable one of the shock troopers before Tali caught his attention.

"Tali, think you can get these turrets online?" Marcus asked.

The quarian snorted, raising her omni-tool, "You forget who I am. I'm a quarian; I do this in my sleep." With a smirk fit of an asari, she hacked every single AA tower in just a few clicks, the AA towers swivelled around and faced the dropship, targetting the vessel with numerous lock-ons. The dropship noticed it's predicament and tried to pull out, but by that time it was too late for the geth ship.

Missiles erupted from the turrets and impacted the vessel, shredding it's bow section. With the forward section ripped apart and due to the weight slammed into it, the dropship's bow dipped and smashed into the ground, causing the whole dropship to crash in a large explosion, debris floating into space.

As if for a bigger bonus, the dropship had smashed right into the center of the geth mass, crushing all or most of them, in the crash. Whatever was left of the enemy force was quickly picked off by his squad. Tongues of flame gushed from the vessel's wreckage as they managed to sneak through it, eventually ending up in a long corridor leading towards the top of the spire.

It was smooth sailing from there, no more geth forces moving to stop them. Finding a hatch, he went to open it but stopped when he heard comm chatter from C-Sec forces. Listening closely, he cursed at what he heard.

"Holy shit, a battalion of the geth forces just broke off and are relocating," one of the officer stated over the gunfire.

"Destination?" Another officer requested.

"Citadel Tower but they're not taking the elevator. Sir, they're literally walking on the outside of the tower."

Cutting off his connection to their comms, he turned to his team. They all looked at him, their stares letting him know they had heard. Before he speak, Liara spoke up.

"We can't waste time, Shepard and you know that," Liara stated, "Wrex, Kaidan and I will set up a defensive position here while you three deal with Saren."

"You're facing a battalion Liara," Marcus stated, "That's suicide."

"And if we continue, the geth will hammer you from behind. This has to be done. It's us three or the entire galaxy. Take your pick. I'm sorry, Shepard." With that, Liara motioned for Wrex and Kaidan to assume defensive positions; Kaidan moving to deploy mines, toys he's been wanting to use for a while, along the path. Liara smiled at Marcus' concerned expression.

"Go. We'll hold them off." Liara requested.

Marcus nodded as he fought back tears. _Ashley was bad enough, but three in one battle? _Laying a comforting hand on his shoulder, Tali brought him back to the present. Nodding, he turned back around as Liara joined Wrex and Kaidan. The asari smiled with every step. Hitting the panel, Garrus waited for the hatch to open before checking for hostiles. Satisfied that no hostiles waited for them, the turian leapt inside, followed by Marcus and then Tali.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1201 hours._

_Presidium, Council Chambers, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Citadel._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

As the elevator door opened, they were greeted by a both familiar and unfamiliar sight. What had once been the grand atrium of the chambers; a fountain with trees encircling it, was now alit with flames. Fire licked at the trees, burning them into cimbers and spreading to other trees while the fountain had stopped sprouting water, with the top half having been blown off by a heavy weapon. Dead C-Sec guards lay all around the area, blood pooled on the ground.

The sirens continued to blare in the background, their trepidated mixture of urgency mixing with the vehemence of grief coming from the fires. Dead civilians were also among the dead in the area. The trio moved up, circling around the fountain as they headed for the stairs that would head up into the main area. As they ran up the ramp, four geth troopers rounded the corner and fired at them, merely trying to slow them down.

The trio gunned them down like the nuisances they were and hit the top, sprinting through the main area towards the Council's usual meeting area; where Saren now stood, his fingers dancing on holographic panels, pistol strapped to his side. The only resistance they met was at the stairs; five troopers and two rocket troopers; all of which were easily dealt with.

Sprinting up the stairs to the area where he was made spectre, Marcus and the duo raised their weapons to aim at the back of Saren's head.

"That's quite enough!" Marcus shouted and he watched as Saren stopped moving, his head tilting slightly so he could see them just in his peripheral vision. Moving forward, he went to apprehend Saren but the turian suddenly swerved around, knocking them all to the ground with a biotic shockwave as the terminal disappeared and the turian jumped off the edge.

Climbing to their feet, Marcus coming up first, they stood absolutely still, wondering just where Saren went. The question was answered for them as Saren shot up on his hoverpad, the turian firing a steady stream of warp fields at them as he did. His team rushed into cover, followed by him, as Saren continued his attack. Asured that they would stay in their pinned position, Saren ceased his attack and unclipped his raikou pistol, hanging it at his side.

"I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time, Shepard," Saren announced, hovering before the Council podiums on his hoverpad. Marcus kept his rifle at the ready as he spoke.

Marcus huffed, "In time for what?"

"The final confrontation," Saren declared, holstering his pistol as he crossed his arms, "I think we both expected it would end like this." Marcus nodded. _You're damn right, you turian scumbag. This is where it all ends...for you, and Sovereign._

"You've lost, you know that don't you?" Saren asked, a sneer crossing his features, "In a few minutes, Sovereign will have full control of all the Citadel's systems. The relay will open and the Reapers will return!"

Marcus shook his head at the turian's insanity, "Don't get into a victory dance just yet, asshole. I've still got some tricks up my sleeve." As he said this, he looked to make sure Garrus and Tali were okay. Garrus had a simple scratch on his cheek while Tali appeared perfectly fine. He was so concerned about them that he almost missed Saren's response.

"You surived our encounter on Virmire," Saren stated, "But I've changed since then. Improved. Sovereign has...upgraded me." This caused Marcus' eyes widen with shock. _The fool, he's added more cybernetics to _his body? That just makes the reaper indoctrination on him stronger! That must mean that Saren's too far _gone...but if I can just break through Sovereign's influence..._

"You let Sovereign implant you?" Marcus responded, his tone almost a yell, "Are you bloody insane? You've just made yourself easier to control!"

Saren shook his head, "You speak rubbish, but I know I don't have to listen to you. Sovereign's guidance is all that I need," Saren continued, "I suppose I should thank you, Shepard. After Virmire, I couldn't stop thinking about what you had said to me. About Sovereign...manipulating me." Saren seemed contemplative for a second, but immediately turned back.

"The doubts began to eat away at me," Saren explained, "Sovereign sensed my hesitation. I was implanted to...strengthen my resolve! Now my doubts are gone; I believe in Sovereign completely. I understand that the Reapers need organics. Join us and Sovereign will find a place for you, to."

_Fuck that. I'm not going to live the rest of my life as a mindless slave. _He stole a glance at Tali before turning back. _I've got something to live for. _He knew Saren could be saved. He knew he could. He just had to try and break through Sovereign's manipulation.

"Sovereign's controlling you through your implants! Can't you see that?" Marcus shouted over the sound of gunfire. The geth battalion had arrived and engaged his friends. _Hashem protect them._ Saren's response was barely heard as Marcus concentrated on the answer that seemed to pop in his mind. _I will do more than that. _Marcus was baffled.

_Did god just...respond?_

"The relationship is symbiotic," Saren responded, "Organic and machine interwined; a union of flesh and steel. The strengths of both! The weaknesses of neither!" Marcus rolled his eyes at Saren's speech, but continued to listen nonetheless, "I am a vision of the future Shepard! The evolution of organic life. This is our destiny."

"Join Sovereign and experience a true rebirth!" Marcus felt a numb pain begin to build in his mind but it was gone as if it had been pushed out. Apparently Garrus and Tali had felt it as well, both not knowing what happened either. Marcus knew he was playing his last bag. If hashem could actually hear him, he knew that the universal being had his back. He had to do this.

"Sovereign hasn't won yet!" Marcus yelled, dropping his weapon as he stood out of cover. Saren simply looked at the human, not glowing with biotics or even raising his pistol. The two spectres just stared at each other, eye to eye, neither moving.

"I can stop it from taking control of the station," Marcus explained defiantly, "Step aside and the invasion will never happen! We don't have to bow down to them; they don't even have to win! We can stop them!"

Saren however, wasn't defeated that easily, "You can't stop it! Not forever! You saw the visions! You saw what happened to the protheans! The Reapers are too powerful!"

Marcus walked up to the tip of the bridge and this time Saren glowed with biotics, but still didn't move. _Come on, Sovereign, take your best shot. _Nothing happened and Marcus smiled inside. _I've got your attention now, haven't I asshole? Time for you to find out why people don't fuck with this galaxy!_

"Some part of you must realize this is wrong," Marcus negoitated with the turian, "You can fight this! It doesn't have to be this way! Fight Sovereign's influence! Just have faith!"

Then the unexpected happened. Saren's biotics died down as he hesitated. The turian then pulled away, holding a talon to his head, "Maybe you're right," Saren muttered, "Maybe there is still a chance for-" He didn't get to finish as he screamed in pain, cradling his head as his biotic implants lit up and down, Sovereign meddling with the implants.

**YOU ARE MINE. YOU ARE MY ADJUTANT FOR HARVESTED PERFECTION. YOU ARE THE VANGUARD OF YOUR OWN DESTRUCTION.**

Sovereign boomed through Saren's voice and the screaming finally stopped. But Saren's fight wasn't over.

"The implants...Sovereign's...too strong. I'm sorry...I can't...fight his compulsions...you...you need to kill...me." Marcus felt a pang of sympathy for the turian. The man really had, the entire time, been trying to do what he thought was right. He had never forfeited his duty to the galaxy; he was upholding it. He knew he should hate Saren; the turian had sacrificed human lives many times, but he couldn't help but feel regret. He played his final card to save Saren.

"It's not over yet!" Marcus shouted, "Fight him! Fight the son of a bitch!"

The only response was Sovereign's voice once again.

**YOUR ATTEMPTS ARE MEANINGLESS. YOU WILL BE DISCARDED LIKE DUST ON THE COSMIC WINDS. YOUR DESTRUCTION IS BUT A PINPRICK ON THE UNIVERSE. YOUR DAMNATION IS NOTHING. YOU CANNOT BEGIN TO COMPREHEND OUR ULTIMATE GOAL. HAD YOU BEEN ABLE TO COMPREHEND OUR PURPOSE; YOU WOULD JOIN US. YOU WOULD EMBRACE OUR IDEALS. YOUR IGNORANCE IS THE VERY REASON THIS CYCLE EXISTS. ORGANICS WILL ALWAYS RESIST. THAT IS YOUR DOWNFALL.**

He wanted to contemplate the meaning of the reaper's words, but there was no time. Before he could say anything, Saren's real voice returned. A talon reached his hip and unholstered his pistol, aiming it at Marcus. Defenseless, Marcus could do nothing. However, he didn't need to. Saren's pistol moved away from Marcus and bumped against the side of Saren's head, his grip shaking as Sovereign tried to pull away.

**YOU ACCEPTED OUR TRUTH. I HAVE PERFECTED YOU. I GAVE YOU TRUE PURPOSE. I GAVE YOU A CHANCE AT GODHOOD.**

"No, you can take your godhood and shove it up your collective ass," Saren declared, smiling at Marcus with a genuine kindness in his face, "You can consider this the termination of our arrangement. Goodbye Shepard, and thank you."

Marcus grimaced as purple turian blood painted his face, a shot ringing through the chambers. Saren's body went limp, the pistol falling from his grip. Saren fell from the hoverpad and fell over the edge, past Marcus. The shattering of glass could be heard as Marcus looked over. A garden area below, once shielded by glass now shattered, was now fully open for them to see as Saren's body landed with a sickening crack. The turian lay impaled on a large, two meter long, piece of glass, his blue, synthetic eyes going dark as the turian lay unmoving. Saren was dead.

With a sigh, Marcus murmured the Mourner's Kaddish for Saren as he and his friends approached the console Saren had been accessing earlier, Tali uploading Vigil's data file. The file took immediate affect, with the flashing red icon of a cyberintrusion disappearing and being replaced by the Council symbol. Apparently they were recognized as the Council. Entire systems popped up; ward control, fire control systems, fleet communications, the lot. He immediately opened comms with the fleet.

He muted the cries for help to hear what his squad had to say. All he got to hear was that the citadel fleet had been decimated, their forces forced to fall back to the relay. Apparently the Destiny Ascension wasn't going to make it as dozens of geth warships had it trapped and were pounding it; even a dreadnought of it's firepower wouldn't last much longer.

Garrus immediately spoke up hurriedly, "Quick! Open the station's arms! Let's give the fleet a shot at Sovereign."

Tali looked at the turian as if he was insane, "That's crazy! They are decimated and you think they're in shape to take on Sovereign?"

Marcus did as suggested however, his omni-tool working as it inserted the request. He felt the station vibrate alittle as the wards began to split apart once more, opening up to reveal Sovereign. He could see the purple nebula through the large window behind the podiums begin to appear from behind the opening arms.

Unmuting his comms, he tapped into the Ascension's comm lines. According to the records, the captain of Matriarch Lidanya.

"This is the Destiny Ascension...Main drives offline. Kinect Barriers down to 40%. Main weapons are disabled and we only have the forward GARDIAN's operational. The Council is onboard. I repeat, the Council is onboard." The trio looked at each other in terror as they realized just what was happening. The galactic representatives were on that ship!

He then saw Garrus' omni-tool light up. Frowning, the turian accessed it and brought the comm online. Apparently the Normandy was trying to contact them. Joker's voice came through the omni-tool.

"Normandy to the Citadel. I repeat, Normandy to the Citadel. Come on commander, talk to me!"

Switching comms to the Normandy, Marcus responded, "We caught the fleet's distress call. I guess the geth aren't as good at jamming as they thought they were. I'm sitting here in the Adura sector with the entire fifth fleet."

"We can save the ascension! Just unlock the Widow relay and we'll send the cavalry in!" Marcus mentally cheered. _And the Alliance comes to save the idea. Drinks are on me, Joker. You're a miracle worker._

Apparently however, Tali had another opinion, "Are you really willing to sacrifice human lives to save the Council...Shepard?" She almost said his first name, but she couldn't around Garrus. Both Garrus and the spectre gave her obscured looks. Garrus was first to respond.

"This is bigger than humanity, Tali!" Garrus argued, "Sovereign's a threat to every organic species in the galaxy!"

Tali nodded, "Exactly my point. The Council must be left to die if we're going to win this," Tali shot back, "Hold the fleet back; wait for the arms to open up and then have them focus all firepower on Sovereign. You'll have more ships to deal with him and it's the better strategic option!"

Joker choked down his impatient request as he waited for Marcus' answer. The spectre hesitated. _The Council's always been about their own ass before others. But does that really justify letting the geth murder them? What good would that do? You'd be doing the reaper's job for them. Yet again, Tali is right. The wise tactical option would be to focus all firepower on Sovereign._

_But is that what we're dumbing this down to? Ruthless warfare? Sacrifice the few for the many? No, I won't go for that option knowing full well that there are other options. Tali's young, she doesn't understand that the choices I make could severely impact the galactic community. Now I sound like Udina. _

_No, I can't do it. I won't. Fuck tactical professions. _

"Normandy, alert Admiral Hackett. Have him and all the ships he has divert to save the Ascension," Marcus ordered. Noticing Tali about to object, he held his hand up, stalling her. Continuing, he said, "Save the Council and then pound Sovereign into dust. This ends today." With that, he cut the comms. Tali just sighed as he looked at him, Garrus nodding at Marcus, showing the turian's support in Marcus' decision.

"Those bosh'tet councilors better appreciate this," Tali muttered and the trio nodded in agreement.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1229 hours._

_Main Bridge, Killmanjaro-Class Dreadnought SSV McKinley HA-3, Exiting Widow Relay over Citadel._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Citadel._

_Fleet Admiral Steven Hackett._

"Entering Widow in three...two...one." The navigation officer announced as the McKinley exited the relay over the Citadel. Hackett stood up from his command chair and assessed what he saw. The place was a battlefield; the nebula was alight with bright flashes as turian, salarian and asari warships engaged with geth assault craft; desperately trying to escape the geth's death grip. The alliance admiral, after scanning the nebula's horizon, spotted the Destiny Ascension just next to the Citadel's opening arms.

Hackett watched as the Normandy spearheaded the fleet, moving infront of the McKinley and her two alliance Geneva-Class heavy cruiser escorts; the SSV Perugia and SSV Cape Town. The rest of the fifth fleet followed by the Normandy in as they loomed in upon the geth fleet.

"Weapons, give me firing solutions on the geth ships. Preferrably some battleships. Time to test our shiny new guns." Hackett ordered and the weapons officer nodded, immediately punching in firing solutions for the dreadnought. The rest of the fleet followed as they steadily approached firing range. _Two Thousand Miles. Just a few more..._

Within minutes, they were in range of the geth's ships and they had the synthetics in their sights. Both fleets opened fire on each other, the geth completely forgetting about the Destiny Ascension as the asari dreadnought limped out of the engagement. The fifth fleet unleashed fury upon the geth vessels; rockets, MAC cannon shots and javelin torpedoes colliding with the enemy ships.

The geth's last two battleships were torn apart from the mass of projectiles; their heavy armor and shielding unable to cope with the sheer weight of weapons fire pressed upon them. A few frigates lit up in the purple of the nebula and five heavy cruisers were shredded by javelin torpedoes. Overall, the geth two third of their original attack force in the first salvo, but they weren't the only ones to take hits.

Hackett and the bridge crew braced themselves as the geth's attacks beared on them. The first shots impacted the fifth fleet in an explosion of color, explosions rippling along kinetic barriers. The McKinley shuddered slightly as the geth's shots impacted their barriers, but luckily the dreadnought had stronger shields. The Normandy disappeared off scanners as it activated it's stealth drives and performed evasive maneveurs, the frigate shaking has an explosion originated off the Cape Town's portside. It's barriers were breached.

It's forward guns let off a final salvo before it's hull buckled and cracked, it's engine core going critical as the Cape Town disappeared in a bright flash. The Perugia managed to eliminate most of the projectiles heading for it, it's barriers depleted on 22 percent. Numerous alliance fighters flew in to take the majority of the fire, all of them exploding to protect the fleet. Hackett watched as the port thruster of the SSV Hong Kong was blown off, causing the frigate to spiral off it's course and smash into a wing of fighters, the frigate continuing to spiral until it exploded in a fiery blast.

The enemy salvo was brutal but ended in mere seconds. They had lost a frigate, numerous fighters, a cruiser and had two heavily damaged others. The McKinley's shields were barely scratched as they were joined by the remnants of the Citadel fleet. The turians had lost twenty cruisers while the asari and salarians had lost forty vessels all together. Combined, their return fire utterly annihilated the geth forces, ripping apart was left of their ships. The Destiny Ascension managed to reach the relay and escape, the Council onboard, but the ship had taken severe punishment. The rest of the citadel fleet stayed with the alliance ships, hoping to stop Sovereign.

With no geth ships left, Sovereign was all that was left. The Citadel arms completed their opening sequence and the Normandy shot inside first, leading the fleet to the huge form of Sovereign. Hackett gasped as he looked at the monolith; that thing was three times the McKinley's size. Ordering his men to precheck firing solutions, he lead the fleet inside to face the monster, the reaper's legs raising as it knew it was under attack.

The Normandy fired the first shot, three GARDIAN rockets impacting the reaper's shields. Sovereign didn't even wince, but it didn't return fire either. The rest of the fleet opened fire, but when the smoke of the explosion cleared, Sovereign wasn't even dented. Yet again, it didn't attack. _What's that beast waiting for? _And so Hackett ordered Sovereign destroyed with everything they had.

And as they did, Sovereign just sat there, not moving, not retaliating.

Just sitting there as it once again accessed Saren's cybernetics.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1237 hours._

_Presidium, Council Chambers, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Citadel._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Marksman Garrus Vakarian, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

Marcus watched as one of Sovereign's colossal legs passed the window, the sound of explosions and MAC fire coming from above as the alliance and council warships engaged the reaper. It was going to take all their firepower, and all this team could do was wait. Just as he was about to order his team to return to Liara's team's position, he heard a crackling sound from below.

Looking down, all he saw was Saren's dead form, purple blood oozing from the area he had fired into his head. Marcus wiped the turian's blood off of his face as he turned to Garrus and Tali.

"Make sure he's dead. He may have had good will, but Sovereign doesn't," Marcus ordered and the duo nodded, Garrus equipping his sidearm as the two jumped down into the garden patch. Marcus watched as they landed on the ground and proceeded to approach Saren's body. Raising his pistol, Garrus fired three, steady shots into the turian's face. If he wasn't dead, he was now. Looking up, the two of them gave him a thumbs up as they looked for a way back up.

Marcus moved to help them, but stopped as he heard the crackling sound from below again; this time louder. Looking down, he looked in horror as Saren's body and cybernetics glowed with red energy. He shouted, but his voice was drowned out as the familiar synthetic horn of a reaper's roar was heard, a red shockwave throwing Garrus and Tali into a wall. Marcus tried to run, but the shockwave knocked the bridge of it's struts, causing it to fall to the ground.

Marcus fell off the collapsed bridge, ending up next to his fallen companions. The glass in his helmet cracked as he slammed into the ground, thanking god for his helmet. Wiping the grit off his helmet, he looked up and saw Saren's body was now _standing_ and _looking at them. _He looked to his friends who looked equally as horrified, before he threw his look back at Saren.

The turian's blue eyes now shone a blood red color; the color of hell itself, glaring into his soul. The turian screamed in pain as red energy enveloped his body, red light spilling out of his body like a bright lamp. He heard a sickening sound; flesh sizzling. He watched as Saren's talons grew into 50 centimeter long scythes, the turian's body growing to a height of 8 feet.

His feet turned into daggers that would make kangarooes look tame, while Saren's flesh literally _melted off. _All that was left was Saren's cybernetics and bones; the turian's ribcage glowing a dull red as the ex-spectre's glowing, cybernetic heart beated. Saren's lower jaw was nonexistent, all that was left was his upper half. Red energy continued to sizzle as the turian husk's gaze fell over them, looming over them.

The voice that came through wasn't Saren's or Sovereign's. It was a combination of both.

**I AM SOVEREIGN. AND THIS STATION...IS MINE.**

Screaming a loud war cry, Marcus raised his rifle and opened fire, but all he shot was empty air. Looking to his left, he saw Saren was now gripping the wall. _Great, a reaper hopper. Just we need. _Tali was utterly terrified. Saren's appearence and actions made him look like a spider and it scared her. She fired her shotgun in erratic movements as she tried to hit Saren, but everytime she did, the Saren disappeared in a flash as he leaped across the room.

Finally, the husk stopped as it opened it's mouth, unleashing a steady burst of siege pulses at them. Garrus was ripped from the ground as he flew into the ground and Marcus deflected them with biotics. Tali fired her shotgun at the stationary super-husk, her shots pinging off the turian's upgraded shielding. Without warning, the husk snapped it's head towards the quarian and leapt at her, thrusting her into the ground as it raised it's talons.

Tali tried to kick the turian off, but he was the size of a krogan and ten times stronger.

"Shepard, help!" She screamed as the turian brought his talon down across her neck. She closed her eyes, awaiting the envitable feeling of her neck being ripped apart. But nothing happened. Opening her eyes, she saw the turian's fist trapped in a biotic stasis field. The husk was so focused on trying to save itself from the field, that it didn't notice Marcus leap on it's back, trying to rip it off Tali.

"Run Tali! Run now!" Marcus shouted but Tali didn't listen. With a snarl, Tali picked up her discarded shotgun and shoved it into the turian's face. She pulled the trigger and gave a sadistic smile as the turian's head snapped backwards, bits of head being blasted off. Her smile drifted off as it's head looked back at her, the left part of it's face missing, leaving a single eye to look back at her. It filled her with trepidation. _Keelah..._

Saren ignored her though as it leapt off her, slamming it's back into a wall and causing Marcus to let a cry of pain. He kept his grip tight long enough to slam his knife into Saren's cybernetic heart, falling back to the ground. He was horrified to see that this didn't work either, the husk eying the husk and almost seeming to give a smile at the futile gesture.

The husk fired a siege pulse at Marcus, impacting his face before he rolled out of the way. Tali screamed at him, but she let out a sigh of relief as she saw him leap up, throwing his destroyed helmet away, spitting out blood from his mouth as he did so. _My shields are fucked beyond repair. Shit. How the hell do we take out this SOB?_

Saren was unrelenting in his assault, pounding their positions with fire. Garrus, finally recovering from being unconscious, stood up and switched his sniper for his assault rifle, firing a steady burst of fire into the husk's back. Saren's snapped around 180 degrees, the gesture scaring the shit out of Garrus as he tried to blast Saren's head off. The whole body spun around as it knocked the rifle out of his hand, his talons ripping the rifle in half.

Before Garrus could react, Saren slammed his talons into Garrus' chest, purple blood exploding from his mouth. Marcus looked in terror as his body froze, watching as Saren retracted his claws and threw Garrus into the wall behind him. Torfan flashed by his eyes. He remembered Sarann's last words. Elysium flashed by. He remembered Roshia's death. Virmire flashed by. He watched Ashley die. Noveria flashed by. Benezia's blood coated the image. Eden Prime. Jenkins' fell to the ground, riddled with pulse rounds.

"NO!" Marcus shouted in a fit of rage, his body pulsing with biotics as he charged straight at Saren, the husk's body spinning to face him, "Not again! NOT AGAIN!" Marcus biotically slammed into the husk, managing to send it sliding two meters before it tried to rip his head off with his claws. Marcus ducked as he slammed a biotic fist into Saren's elbow, a bone shattering crack resounding through the room. Tali rushed to Garrus' side as he gurgled blood from his mouth and chest, healing him with medi-gel.

Saren didn't even wince in pain. All emotions had been removed. Saren was dead; this was nothing but a body under puppet strings. As far as Marcus was concerned, he was fighting Sovereign itself. Sovereign's reflexes were fast as it initiated a footsweep. Marcus fell over but immediately leapt to his feet, Sovereign's claws leaving three claw marks on his cheek as it swerved by.

He launched a side kick into Saren's chest, knocking it slightly, but enough for Marcus to rip his knife out of Saren's heart and shoves it into Saren's ex-throat, ripping it out in a single stroke. He then dived under Saren's arm and ended up behind him, unholstering his pistol as he emptied five rounds into the back of Sovereign's head.

**YOUR ATTACKS ARE FUTILE. MINUTE BUG BITES TO A STRONGER BEING. YOU ARE BUT AN ANNOYANCE. **

Marcus smiled as he holstered his pistol. He enveloped Saren in biotic energy as he picked him up and slammed him into the wall. It didn't have the affect he intended however; the turian husk simply sinking his talons into the wall as it alligned it's siege pulse over Marcus. Just as it prepared to fire, Tali appeared out of nowhere, screaming a high-pitched war cry as she emptied slugs of molten tungsten into Saren's arm. The proximity and force of the rounds was enough to tear the husk's left arm off, Saren looking at the arm like it was a mere irritation.

Marcus then realized that the only way to defeat the husk was to rip it _limb from limb. _Every arm, leg, body part, everything. Only then could Sovereign's abomination could be destroyed. Saren prepared to fire his siege pulse again, but Marcus was there in a heartbeat, shoving his shotgun into it's mouth.

"From Earth with love, asshole," Marcus sneered as he squeezed the trigger, a shotgun round exploding in his mouth, Saren's head exploding in a flurry of mechanical gore. The head was nonexistent as Marcus pulled his weapon away, purple blood peppering his armor. Saren was slowed down, but not yet finished. He aimed his shotgun at Saren's right arm and fired, ripping it off. Saren then kicked him, but he impacted air. Marcus was lucky not to have been hit; that foot would have torn his guts out.

He almost laughed as Saren tried to hit Chiktika; who had appeared and begun hitting the husk with incineration attacks. Tongues of flame licked at the husk's body as it uselessly tried to kill it. Marcus smiled sadistically as he prepared to finish Saren off, dropping his shotgun and leaping forward. Thrusting his hand forward, he grabbed hold of Saren's heart and pulled.

The heart came off easily, the heart ceasing it's hateful pulse as it died, going silent. Saren's husk then stopped, unmoving. Without a sound, the husk simply fell onto the ground, the red glow gone from it's now dead body. Marcus moved to prime a grenade; he was making sure Saren stayed dead this time, but he saw it was unnesscary as the body simply melted into a pile of molten ash.

Attaching the grenade back to his vest, he threw the heart on the ground, giving a tired inhale of breath. He chuckled at Tali, both of them laughing at how they were covered in dirt and dried blood. With a slight snicker from both of them, they both embraced, letting go after noticing that Garrus was looking.

The turian laughed, "Don't worry...lips...are...closed. Now...help...please?" Marcus grinned as he let go of Tali, moving to help Garrus up.

"No hugs for me...please...keep those for Tali." Putting an arm under the turian's shoulder, helped by Tali, they helped Garrus up and moved to find a way back up. Once they climbed back up, they realized that the sounds of battle had stopped.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1308 hours._

_Cockpit, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Engaging Sovereign._

_Eden Prime War, Battle of the Citadel._

_Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau._

Joker let out a whoop of fright as he added additional thrust to the engines, shot from one of Sovereign's thanix weapons just missed the back of the ship, missing them by a mere meter. Joker watched as an alliance cruiser ahead was split apart from a blast from one of Sovereign's weapons, the SSV Madrid being ripped apart by the molten metal.

The frigate continued evasive manoeuvres as it dodged Sovereign's fire.

"Sovereign's too strong! We have to fall back!" Announced one of the captain's over the comms. Sovereign had already destroyed seven alliance ships, while heavily damaging the McKinley. Sovereign was a force to be reckoned with and Hackett was finding that out the hard way. The Citadel fleet had fully retreated after losing four more frigates, but the alliance was pushing. They had to believe Shepard could stop it.

The Normandy couldn't do much except launch hit-and-runs against the reaper, not being able to damage it anymore than the others could. Shots pinged off Sovereign's impenetrable shields as it just tore into their ranks. It wouldn't be long before their ships were forced to retreat from the overwhelming firepower.

"Negative. We take down that monster no matter what the cost." Hackett ordered and Joker put his poker back on. Pressly's objections went unheard as he continued his unwithering assault. Just after hitting them though, the explosions ceased. Sovereign stopped firing and lay completely still. Everyone on the fleet conversed in confusion.

"What the hell just happened?" One captain asked.

"Look at the power readings! Sovereign...it's powering down!" Joker's face lit up as he saw his own scans. He laughed half-heartedly at the readings. _Sovereign's systems are offline. Weapons are disabled, mass effect core is offline and..._

"All ships! Sovereign's shields are down, I repeat, it's bloody barriers are gone! Now's our chance!" Everyone cheered as the remnants of the fifth fleet turned to face Sovereign, who's legs had lost their grip and was falling, ableit slowly, from the tower, it's form limp. Hackett shouted the victorious order.

"All ships, get it everything you've got!" Joker nodded as he brought the Normandy around and shot towards Sovereign. The entire fleet opened fire on the reaper, shots no longer pinging off shields but ripping off bits of alien armor, Sovereign finally taking wounds. Shooting past the reaper, Joker brought the Normandy into a dive, loading a single javelin-torpedo into the main weapon banks. Loading a firing solution on Sovereign's 'belly', he brought the Normandy down and sped towards the monolith.

With a victorious shout, Joker watched as he fired a javelin torpedo, the weapon impacting Sovereign's belly and ripping right through it, exploding inside it. Sovereign let out a synthetic moan of pain, it's screech heard by all ships as it exploded in a brilliant red light, bits of armor spreading all over. Sovereign was destroyed. The two kilometer reaper's debris spread out all over, hitting the many wards of the Citadel and causing city wide damage. What Joker was concentrating on though, was the piece of Sovereign's leg heading straight for the Council Chambers.

"Shepard!" Joker shouted. No response came as he watched the debris impact the tower.

**{Loading...}**

_July 12, 2183_

_1400 hours._

_Presidium, Council Chambers, Citadel Tower, The Citadel._

_Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

Tali's eyes shot open as she surveyed her surroundings. She remembered Marcus' words as Sovereign's debris floated towards them and smashed into the tower. _Go! Run! Get out of here! _Tali groaned in pain as she found a piece of debris pinning her across the waist. She tried to move and found out in a moan that her lower ribcage was broken.

Fire crackled in the background at the Citadel's sirens were just distant noise as she looked around. Sovereign's debris littered the citadel's chambers, the place looking like ruins. Looking, she saw Garrus trapped under the same rubble as she was, but Marcus was nowhere to be seen. Within seconds, she was panicing and shouting his name, but no response came.

She felt tears of frustration well up in her eyes as she desperately tried to worm her way out of the debris and continued crying her commander's name. The lack of responses and the non-moving wreckage irritated her beyond toleration. She let out a sigh of relief as she heard voices nearby, human by the sound of it, and footsteps approaching.

She watched as the glow of a omni-tool came into view, followed by an alliance marine's head. Looking at her, he then looked behind him and called out Anderson's name. The kind captain suddenly came to her side, reassuring her that they would be fine, all the while as alliance marines flooded into the room, trying to find survivors.

She let out a sigh of relief as a 'Lieutenant James Vega' lifted the wreckage off of her, wincing at the sudden pain put on her. She ignored it as she crawled to her feet, facing the area Marcus had been. It was now covered in wreckage. She ignored Anderson's pleas for her to stop as she rushed up the wreckage, trying to find her unionmate. She frustratingly punched pieces of rubble or tossed others aside.

She then fell to her knees as Anderson came to her side, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"The chance of him surviving that is low, Miss Zorah," Anderson declared solemnly, "I'm sorry." Tali began to sob into her hands as Liara, Wrex and Kaidan appeared, the former two holding Garrus up by the arms. Tali sobbed and sobbed, but her melancholy was interrupted when she saw something out of the corner of her eyes. Looking up, she saw a human form limp out of the wreckage.

The N7 insignia glowed in the eery darkness, blood splattered across breastplate. A hand held his side as he smiled at his quarian girlfriend. Tali let a smile cross her face as she eyed the miracle of life. She didn't care about her friend's thoughts. Leaping to her feet, she ran into Marcus' arms and embraced him tightly, crying with tears of joy into his shoulder.

"Bosh'tet...don't do that to me..." Tali muttered into his ear.

He grinned, "Never again." They broke the embrace as they both limped back down to Anderson and his group, Wrex patting Marcus on the back as he walked past. Marcus waved off two marines trying to help him, preferring to walk on his own. His team followed behind him, smiling at their victory.

They had just saved the galaxy. That was one hell of a feat.

**"You did it. Shepard and his team saved the galaxy..."**

**Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch**

**"And that was only the beginning..."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

* * *

**Casualities during Battle of the Citadel:**

**Twelve Turian Light Cruisers: THS Tangent Affairs, THS Careening Light, THS Gauntlet of Solar Winds, THS Rising Star, THS Sailing Dust, THS Lamentations, THS Fortified Solace, THS Solemn Spirit, THS Mendicant Bias, THS Swift, THS Enlightened, THS Approacher.**

**Eight Turian Heavy Cruisers: THS Hunter, THS Predator, THS Haven, THS Veracity, THS Honored Charge, THS Miracle, THS Servitude of Courage, THS Silent Spirit.**

**Numerous Unaccounted salarian and asari vessels.**

**Three Alliance Heavy Cruisers: SSV Jekarta, SSV Seoul, SSV Madrid.**

**Five Alliance Light Cruisers: SSV Shenyang, SSV Cairo, SSV Cape Town, SSV Warsaw, SSV Emden. **

**Two Alliance Heavy Frigates: SSV Hong Kong, SSV Beijing.**

**One Turian Dreadnought: THS Iron Conviction.**

**Multiple other vessels unaccounted for.**

**Ground Casualities: **

**Executor Palin: KIA**

**Captain Entricas: WIA**

**Ambassador Donnel Udina: Active.**

**Captain David Edward Anderson: Active.**

**Councilor Valern: Active.**

**Councilor Tevos: Active.**

**Councilor Sparatus: Active.**

**Matriarch Lidanya: Active.**

**Sergeant Armando-Owen Bailey: Active.**

**Civilian Deaths: **

**Predicted: Over One Hundred Thousand.**

**Confirmed: Twenty Thousand Accounted For.**

**Numerous Damage to Citadel Wards. Zakera Ward has suffered minor damage, Shalta Ward has suffered heavy structural damage, Romulus Ward is declared uninhabitable until repairs can be completed. Kikowani Ward remains undamaged. Presidium damage is heavy. Damage to Citadel Tower is medium. Other wards unaccounted for. **

**Sovereign, the geth flagship designated as 'superdreadnought' was destroyed by Alliance reinforcements. Geth forces have been terminated. Geth forces have started steady fall back to Perseus Veil. Saren Arterius, Rogue Turian Spectre, KIA. **

**This is Khalisah Bint-Sinan Al-Jilani, Westerlund News, Signing off from the Citadel.**


	34. Chapter 28 Space to Breathe

**ENIGMA**

**CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:**

**SPACE TO BREATHE**

_July 13, 2183_

_1500 hours._

_Hellion Plaza, Flux, Shalta Wards, The Citadel._

_Lieutenant Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni._

Marcus had to duck under the low hanging cabling to get into Flux. The Citadel was a total mess; Sovereign's wreckage had literally struck almost every past of the Citadel and it would take probably a total of two years to clean it all up. However, not only was the galaxy saved from the reaper menace, or at least for a while, and Saren and his geth defeated, but humanity had gained alot from it.

Marcus had just returned from his meeting with the Council, Udina and Anderson. Declaring Marcus and his team heroes and the alliance fifth fleet brothers in arms, the Council allowed humanity the chance to join the Council. Udina had accepted graciously and when asked who should join, Marcus had chose Anderson. Udina hadn't been very friendly to him over the decision, but he really didn't care. Anderson was a strong leader and had the courage to do what was needed; Udina was too cowardly and unwilling to make hard decisions.

With Anderson as humanity's councilor, Marcus had declared his intention to find a way to permanently stop the reapers. Marcus knew this was far from fully over; destroying Sovereign and the geth and saving the Citadel was barely the beginning; the entire reaper fleet, consisiting of hundreds, possibly thousands of vessels was still out in dark space. Seeing as the Citadel failed, they could be on their way towards their galaxy right now. It'd take them years to arrive, but that was hardly the point. They had to prepare for full-scale war.

However, they had gained a large advantage in the war; they had made sure the reapers could enter through the Citadel. Therefore, the Reapers couldn't control the mass relays, kill off their leadership or find out the exact position of their colonies. For now, they had the upper hand in the playing field. They knew the Reapers were coming and they were preparing. The Council had already announced their plans to step up dreadnought construction, temporarily ignoring the Treaty of Farixen.

Marcus also remembered the lives lost when they stopped Sovereign. So many lives gone; there had to have been a crew of three hundred on each of those citadel ships and six hundred on the alliance cruisers. Civilian death rates were high and they had barely found all of them yet. The death toll was expected to be in the hundreds of thousands out of the millions living on the monolithic station.

But repairs were underway and for now they could rest and relax. The Normandy hadn't received any assignments, but Marcus was planning to take them out and rout out any geth left behind in council space. However, Anderson had recommended he start with the planet Alchera in the Armada System, Omega Nebula. Deep in the Terminus Systems.

Flux was just an example of how much of a mess the Citadel was; cabling hung fron the ceiling, the dance floor was empty and the bar was closed due to power failure and a large piece of debris resting on it. The casino was closed and some of the tables had been flipped over from numerous blasts, a dead salarian had been there before, but they had quickly removed the body to have it taken to the morgue.

Spotting his comrades sitting at a table nearby, he made his approach. Garrus had wanted to come, but doctor Chakwas had insisted he stay in the medical bay until his wounds were healed. He had objected, but Chakwas insisted, so Marcus came by himself. Smiling at Liara as she turned to greet him, he sat down next to Tali who was sipping from a dextro-amino liquid.

"So...what how does it feel to be heroes?" Marcus asked and everyone laughed. Wrex pounded his fists together in admiration while the others gave each other highfives, all smiling and laughing. The owner of the bar, a volus, woddled over and he ordered a creaming soda, leaning in to talk with his friends.

"I guess it'll be a kick in the quad when the Council realize that a krogan and quarian just saved their asses," Wrex grumbled, pointing at him and Tali. Everyone nodded in agreement, all enjoying the time they got to have with their friends.

"I wish Ashley could have seen this," Kaidan spoke up, eying his drink, "And Jenkins? Damn, I still think he'd have a man crush on you, sir."

Marcus laughed, "Yeah, Jenkins would have loved to have seen this. Ashley would have said, 'Good thing to, otherwise I'd have kicked Sparatus in the shin, skipper.' I've heard they're placing a memorial in the presidium, right next to the krogan statue. I've requested that Ashley, Benezia, Jenkins' and Saren's names be put up."

"Saren?" Liara asked with a raised brow.

"He was good willed Liara, I could see it," Marcus responded, "He thought he was protecting the galaxy in what he was doing. In the end, he shot himself, not me. He's a hero just as much as we are. I just hope the Council doesn't forget what he's done; the good and the bad."

"Nobody's perfect I guess," Kaidan added in a sad tone, before cheering up and raising his glass, "A toast. To victory." Everybody nodded as they raised their own glasses; Tali taking a sec to remove her induction port and then raise it.

"To victory!" Everybody cheered and tapped their glasses together, moving them back down and taking a sip of them as they entered conversations with each other. Kaidan talked with Liara while Wrex excused himself, deciding to grab a bottle of ryncol; a krogan drink. Marcus swivelled in his chair and turned to face Tali, smiling.

"So...how does your pilgrimage sound now?" Marcus asked, a grin tugging at his lips.

Tali smirked behind her visor, knowing full well how she felt. She wanted to play with him though, to hear his compliments, "I don't know. How does it sound?"

"Think of the headlines," Marcus stated, before putting on his best reporter's imitation, "'Quarian saves the Citadel Council and helps take down a rogue turian spectre. Also aids in the destruction of a geth armada.' Now tell me, how does that sound on your pilgrim's report? I think your people will be quite proud of you Tali. Hell, that's got to catch the attention of your father, doesn't it?"

Tali giggled, "Yes, I guess it does. My people will herald me like a hero. I'll probably get accepted by Han'Gerrel immediately. Keelah, entire ships will be wanting me to join their crew."

That caused Marcus' smile to loosen alittle. He turned around and fiddled with his drink. Sensing his discomfort, she leaned and put a hand on his shoulder, curious as to what was wrong. _Did I say something I shouldn't have? Did I insult him?_

"What's wrong, Marcus?" Tali whispered in his ear.

"It's...nothing." Marcus responded.

"I know that look. You can tell me," Tali stated.

Sighing, he looked into her eyes, "I know this must sound incredibly selfish, but I don't want you to leave. I know you have to return to your fleet, but I enjoy your company so much...I don't want you to go. I'll miss you."

Tali then realized what caused his discomfort. _He thinks I want to leave the Normandy. Keelah, he is paranoid and thick sometimes. _She put a hand to his face, caressing it, causing him to look back at her. He smiled weakly.

"I won't leave you. I'm staying." Tali declared.

"But you-" Marcus began to object, but Tali shook her head.

"No. I'll send a message back to the fleet. I'll be given a pardon and be allowed to serve on your ship for an extended period. My father probably won't approve of it, but Shala and Han, knowing my new reputation, will definitely allow it. What, you think I was just going to leave you? I know of the importance of our mission. The Reapers are coming and I know my place is at your side."

Marcus chuckled half-heartedly, "You'd make a good leader you know."

Tali snorted, "I'd screw up alot. My mother always said I'd make a terrible leader, but a better engineer. She said my voice had that thing that made people want to follow it. I don't know if she meant it was attractive or authoritive."

"I think I know," Marcus slid a grin on to his face and Tali slapped his arm.

"Of course you do," Tali stated, but she just wanted to hear that again, Resting her head on his shoulder, she said softly, "That that again."

Marcus snickered, "I think your voice is very sexy, seductive and all round attractive." Tali hummed at the sound of his words, just wanting to rip her cursed visor off and kiss him. She knew she couldn't, but the feeling was there all the same. One day. That reminded her, she should probably stay on the look out for antibiotics and herbal supplements. Her need to...be with him was growing stronger now that the battle to save the galaxy was on.

It hadn't been long before Adams and Pressly joined the group, with Johnson entering as well, wheeling Joker in a wheelchair into the room. This didn't stop Tali and Marcus' private moment however.

Tali felt Marcus' hand on her hip, slowly caressing it. She softly moaned so that only Marcus could hear her delight. She didn't want him to stop or keep going; she knew the feeling was increasing her need to show him her face, but she also loved the sensation. And once again, that same negative thought popped up in her mind. _What if I'm ugly to him? I don't even know if humans find quarians attractive..._

She knocked that thought aside and just enjoyed his touch; even if through the fabric of her suit. They were forced to stop though when Admiral Hackett entered the club. Spotting Marcus, he marched over to the spectre and everyone turned to greet him. Marcus let go of Tali's waist and stood up, formally saluting the admiral.

Hackett ignored the salute and reached out his hand. Surprised, Marcus took the hand and shook it, "Admiral Hackett, an honor to meet you sir."

"Honor's all yours Shepard, you're the Hero of the Citadel," Hackett replied.

"That what they're calling me now?" Marcus asked, unimpressed.

"Sure is, and you've damn well deserved it. And so has your crew." Hackett answered.

"I don't think you came here to say hello and pop up some drinks, did you, sir?" Marcus asked, motioning at the counter.

Hackett eyed the counter but then tore his gaze away and back to Marcus, "As tempting as it may sound, no. I've come here with some good news."

"More?" Wrex asked and everyone chuckled loudly, including Hackett.

"Yes, but for the commander," Marcus raised an eyebrow at the admiral who reached into his pocket and pulled out a a small box, holding it out in front of him.

"Lieutenant Commander Shepard, for your courageous actions in the immediate peril of combat, you risked your life to stop a unimaginable foe and in the progress, saved the Council and the galaxy. You are known as many as the Hero of the Citadel, others as the Galactic Guardian. Some call you the Ultimate Spectre. The people of Earth call you a symbol. A symbol of what humanity can do."

"So, for your tremendous bravery in the face of impossible odds, I hereby promote you to Commander."

Marcus' eyes widened as the box opened, revealing the gold bars of a full Commander. His entire team clapped in applause, Marcus taking the bars in his hand and attaching them to his uniform, replacing his Lieutenant Commander bars with them. But Hackett wasn't done.

"I always present you with the Star of Terra," Hackett announced, pinning the badge on Marcus' uniform, both men smiling; both for different reasons. Marcus stole a glance at Tali and winked, the quarian giggling softly under her mask.

With a final salute, Hackett dismissed himself and left the club, Marcus sitting down. _I'm a full commander. I can't believe it. And the Star of Terra? Damn. Only true heroes get that. _Wrapping an arm around Tali's waist once again, he was about to continue his conversation with her when Liara propped up with her omni-tool.

"Okay everyone, group photo!" The asari announced and Marcus grinned. His crew formed up behind him, Wrex pushing the table away so he stood right behind Tali and Marcus. Garrus appeared just in time to be included, standing to the krogan's left while Joker made sure to stay at Wrex's far right. Pressly kneeled down next to Tali on her right while Johnson sat to Marcus' left with Chakwas on his left. Kaidan stood with Liara, who had put her omni-tool on a stool and set the photo to be timed.

Deciding to hell with it, Marcus pulled Tali closer to him. Embarassed at first, and still blushing, Tali placed her masked head on his shoulder, letting his hand snake around her waist. They both smiled at the camera, even though Tali's couldn't be seen. Everyone smiled as Liara asked Marcus what they should say.

"Everybody say, 'I'm Awesome!'" Everyone laughed as they said.

"I'm Awesome!" Everyone shouted as the omni-tool flashed, taking the picture. Marcus looked around at his crew, his comrades, his brothers and sisters.

They truly were his family.

**{Loading...}**

_July 13, 2183_

_1759 hours._

_'Humanity's Sanctum', Upper Level, Cronos Station, Anadius System._

_The Illusive Man, First Lieutenant Miranda Lawson._

Anadius' sun felt brighter than ever. Another puff of smoke illuminated the room as the Illusive Man, sat analyzing the victory at the Citadel. _Well done, Shepard. You have exceeded my expectations. You are a true paragon of what humanity is capable of. _He also looked at the reports and found out that Shepard's relationship with the quarian had been confirmed. _I don't agree with it, but if it improves his morale, then I shall allow it._

Miranda stood infront of the room, a hand on her hip as she surveyed her datapad. Finally, she spoke.

"Shepard did everything right. More than we could have hoped for," Miranda stated, "Saving the Citadel - even saving the Council. Humanity has the trust of the entire galaxy..." The human genetic perfection turned around, her sleek features facing her leader. Inhaling, she approached his console, dropping the data slate.

"...and still it's not enough."

Another puff of smoke exited the lllusive Man's cigar before he responded, "Our sacrifices have earned the Council's gratitude, but Shepard remains our best hope." With that, he entered the cigar into his mouth once again, inhaling and then exhaling. He skimmed through the reports and found the file mentioning the Reapers. _Yes, Shepard. You're right. The Reapers are a threat to galactic safety and Cerberus, will help you in your endeavour. My forces will be at your disposal Shepard._

Miranda's response was cool and calm, "But they're sending him to fight geth. _Geth,_" Miranda then walked right through the holographic screen, forcing the Illusive Man to turn it off, "We both know they're not the real threat." Miranda continued.

"The Reapers are still out there." Miranda stopped next to him, hand resting on her hip.

"And it's up to us to stop them," TIM answered, taking a datapad from one of his cerberus assistants, Doctor Wilson. He was asking for more resources on finding ways to disable geth ships. Approving it, he waved Wilson out as Miranda continued.

"The Council will never trust Cerberus," Miranda declared, crossing her arms, "They'll never accept our help." Miranda then looked at the still image of Shepard, his face covered in the scars of Elysium, Lieutenant Commander's bars on his chest, N7 opposite that.

"But Shepard...they'll follow him," Miranda contemplated, "He's a hero! A bloody icon!" She then sighed, looking at the Illusive Man directly, "But he's just one man. If we lose Shepard...humanity might just follow." The very thought caused her to shake, not wanting to think of the consequences. TIM's response was simple yet laced with hundreds of different orders. His blue, synthetic eyes glowed in the darkness.

"Then see to it we don't lose him," With that, Miranda nodded and left, leaving the Illusive Man alone in his office. Making sure she was gone, he brought up the file on the Reapers once more, surveying Sovereign's design profile. He exhaled smoke as he read the information. _Destroying the Reapers...yes, but Cerberus has a different goal. Maybe, with this kind of firepower in humanity's hands..._

With that, he summoned Wilson once again.

**{Loading...}**

_July 14, 2183_

_1433 hours._

_Docking Bay, Port Hanshan, Aleusk Continent, Noveria. _

_Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, Marksman Garrus Vakarian,Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Prothean Researcher Liara T'Soni, Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Pressly, Petty Officer Second Class Frederick Deve Johnson, Chief Medical Officer Karin Chakwas, Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, Chief Engineer Gregory Adams._

Everyone waited eagerly as they felt the docking clamps of Port Hanshan's docking bay clasp onto the Normandy, holding the frigate in place.

"Okay everyone. Shore leave starts...now!" The airlock became totally blocked by the crowd of people trying to get out of the frigate and reach out to freedom. Marcus laughed as Pressly was pushed aside by Johnson who rushed past everyone and ran outside, holding his arms up in victory. Pressly eventually caught up and Johnson ran off, Pressly running after him.

When the airlock was completely cleared, all that was left was Marcus and Tali. Chakwas had stayed behind to get Joker into his wheelchair, but they didn't stay long enough to see it, Marcus taking Tali's hand and walking out of the airlock. The next two weeks would just be shore leave, so they might as well enjoy it while they could. Noveria hadn't been the best place to have shore leave, but due to the Citadel being under repairs and Illium being in the terminus, the frozen ball of ice seemed like the best option.

"So Miss Zorah, what ever shall we do? We've got an entire day to ourselves," Marcus declared, looking over at Tali as they stepped out onto the platform opposite the airlock. They turned and began walking into the actual port. Tali began to think through the stuff she could do. _Well, I do have to buy those antibiotics, and I guess the facilities here would be perfect for that._

"I do have to buy somethings before we join the others in the hotel," Tali announced and Marcus nodded, not letting go of her hand for a moment as the ERCS guards scanned them with their omni-tools, Matsuo smiling at them as they passed on their way up the stairs.

They were greeted by Gianna once again as they reached the top of the stairwell, the internal affairs agent giving a warm smile as she shook each of their hands, surprised by their interwined hands but not questioning it.

"Welcome back to Noveria Shepard, I've heard the news reports," Parasini informed them, "The things you did on the Citadel...damn, if I knew what you did here was to stop that from happening, I would have had Anoleis shot and let you through quicker. Luckily, I got to do it anyway."

Marcus chuckled, "Thanks Parasini, but I don't think that would have been nessacary. It was nice seeing you again. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got some shopping and celebrating to do." Parasini simply waved them on through.

"I'll make sure all drinks in the hotel are on the house. Noone forces the hero of the citadel to pay for his drinks! And please, just call me Gianna. Do enjoy your stay." Marcus and Tali nodded at Parasini as they passed her, taking the elevator down into the main plaza. When they got there, they found the place buzzing with activity. Stopping at the stairs, he turned to Tali.

"So, what shop do you want to go to first?" Marcus asked. Tali looked around the plaza and found the shop she wanted; a chemist. Pointing at her intended destination, Marcus tugged on Tali's hand and she followed him to the store, both of them waiting for the doors to fully open before stepping inside. Not many people were inside, only a few asari and a elcor.

Tali let go of Marcus' hand and the spectre waited outside. Tali moved along the many isles, checking every section of medicine she could find. She was about to give up when she saw it; 'Sherrel's Antibiotics'. Picking it up, she immediately approached the counter. Realizing she didn't have any credits on her to pay for it, she opened her omni-tool and asked Marcus to meet with her at the counter. Realizing she was next, she approached the counter.

The human behind the counter was female, her body showing someone in her twenties. She was obviously wanting attention; her uniform was slutty and showed almost her entire cleavage. She huffed as she eyed the quarian.

"You going to steal that packet or you actually got credits to pay for it? You do realize it's fifty-two credits." The woman stated.

Tali narrowed her eyes into slits, but she didn't verbally respond, "No, I'm going to pay for it. And I know how much it is. I'm willing to pay." Tali responded, unable to keep the iciness out of her voice.

"Then pay up," The woman responded.

Tali nodded, "I'm waiting for boyfriend. I don't have any on me, he's paying."

The woman rolled her eyes, "I know how you pathetic quarians work. You're little, repulsive lover will come in, snatch it from my hands and run off with it. Well," The woman continued by grabbing the antibiotics packet out of Tali's hands, shoving it on the desk, "I'm certainly not falling for that. Who do you think I am, stupid?"

_Most sluts are. _"Look, he'll be here any second, just-"

"Just nothing, don't make me call-" The woman never finished as a familiar and welcome voice came from behind her back. Tali grinned behind her visor.

"What's going on here? Don't make you do what?" Marcus asked as he leaned on the counter, winking at Tali. He had heard the entire conversation and clearly was playing with the woman's mind. He then turned back to the woman with his smile. _Damn that smile._

"None of your business. This is between me and the scumsucker here. Could you please-"

Marcus' fake smile dropped, "You're in no position to talk about scumsucking," Marcus spat, glancing at her overexposed cleavage before looking her back in the eyes, "Maybe if you got a proper uniform and not one that's trying to grab a man's attention, then maybe I'd take you seriously. You'll apologize to this young lady right now."

"Go to hell, who the hell do you think you are. Identify yourself!" The woman demanded.

"I'm Commander Shepard, Council Spectre, Hero of the Citadel," Marcus hated using the last formality, feeling like a braggart, but it might just drive his point across.

The woman's eyes widened, "You mean-?"

"Yes, I'm the guy who just saved your ass. Along with Miss Zorah right here. So you'll show her the proper respect!" With that, he took the antibiotics and took Tali's hand, moving to leave. Tali blushed, seeing the attention they had drawn to themselves; the entire shop was looking.

"Hey! You have to pay for those!" The woman shouted, but Marcus simply activated his omni-tool and flashed his spectre credentials before her, before leaving, ignoring her objections. Tali shook her head at Marcus' antics.

"You really shouldn't have done that," Tali tried to say seriously, but her giggles won out, "Keelah! I would have gotten you to do it again just to see her face! It was priceless!"

Marcus chuckled, "Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have. I guess that's what spectres do, right? Do things they shouldn't?" With that they both broke out into laughter as they walked silently, hand in hand, looking among the different shops. When they were finished, they took the elevator up to the mezzanine, where the rest of their friends were waiting. When they entered, they found a very comical sight.

"Yeah! Come on Wrex! Knoch him into submission!" Kaidan's shouting was loud enough to rip through the pounding music of the room and reach them and they turned to see Wrex and Garrus engaged in a vigorous arm-wrestling match. Kaidan and Liara watched eagerly from the sidelines.

Marcus smirked as he let go of Tali's hand, the two of them making their way over to the two wrestlers; a crowd of civilians gathering around to watch the charade. Even Administrator Qui'in had come in to watch, nodding at Marcus as he sat on one of the stools. He noticed Garrus had some muscles; he was holding Wrex off, but not without effort; his reptillian face was covered with the features of someone desperately holding on.

Wrex was barely working up a sweat. Krogan were known for their natural strength and in this wrestling match, it showed. Turians were next to krogan in the most strength, quarians coming up in a close third, as quarian males apparently had powerful arms. Wrex was barely even wincing as he tried to push Garrus' arm into the table, but the turian wasn't giving up without a fight. He was desperately hanging on.

"Come on Garrus!" Marcus cheered.

Hearing his commander cheering him on, Garrus added all the strength he had into pushing Wrex's arm into the table. His troubles went unrewarded however, as Wrex just shone a crocidillian grin at the turian, finally having finished playing games with the turian. With a single heave, the krogan put all the strength into his own arm. Garrus immediately weakened, his arm falling. He tried to compensate, but he was already exhausted. In a matter of seconds, Garrus' arm slammed into the table and Wrex let go, holding his arms up in victory.

Garrus cradled his talon, feeling as if the krogan had snapped it, "You're a brute, Wrex," Garrus stated. Marcus slapped the turian on the back, congratulating him on his effort before ordering him a turian brandy. Garrus was exhausted and he could tell he badly wanted a drink. As he ordered the drinks and Tali, Liara and Kaidan chatted, Wrex approached Garrus, slapping him on the back as well.

"You did good...for a turian," Wrex declared, propping himself up on a stool next to the turian, to his right.

Garrus raised an eyebrow as he examined Wrex's features, "Compliments Wrex? I thought a man like you was above such menial things." He grabbed the brandy in his talons that Marcus just slid across the counter to him and took a sip as he waited for Wrex's response.

The krogan guffawed, "Even krogan know when a compliment is due. You're a good turian, Garrus. Just don't ask me to call you a genius or I'll have to gut you afterwards." Wrex just glared at the bartender and the human slowly nodded, visibly terrified of the krogan.

"One ryncol, coming right up," The human said shakily, practically running off. Ignoring the antics, Garrus responded to Wrex's previous snarky comment.

"Next you'll be telling me that krogan have peacemakers, can be polite and have a herem of beautiful women," Garrus snorted.

"I don't know, maybe a few of our females would suit your tastes," Wrex grinned.

Garrus practically spat out his drink, "Spirits! I wouldn't even consider it! No offense, but I'm no xenophiliac," Garrus glanced at Marcus for a second before ripping it away, "I'm pure all the way. Get me a turian woman and I'll be just fine." Garrus then apologized for the mess he made in spitting out his drink, grabbing a cloth and wiping down the bench.

"Well, I've got my eyes on a woman," Wrex admitted, taking a sip of his newly-delivered ryncol.

Garrus raised an eyebrow and looked directly at his counterpart, "You Wrex? I never would have seen you as the romance type, and from what I've heard, most krogan just do it to breed and hope for a baby that doesn't die in stillbirth. Ah...no offense."

Wrex snorted, "I'm different. I know our race has to continue, but I don't just go breeding with any old female I find. I find one and stick with her." Liara and Tali giggled from behind them and Wrex glared at them, quieting them again, "Women." Wrex muttered. Kaidan had left them to talk with Marcus. They were discussing what they should do after wiping out the last pockets of geth.

"So...who is she?" Garrus asked.

"Noone you'd know, how many krogan can you name by name?" Wrex rhetorically asked.

"Point," Garrus responded, "Still, what position is she?"

"She's a shaman," Wrex responded, but upon seeing Garrus' look, elaborated, "It's a place of high-stature among my people. They essentially deal with mundane things like rites and other politically associated crap that I'd rather not get my talons dug into," Wrex ended the conversation on women and turned it over to something more to his tastes, "So...shotguns and sniper rifles, heh?"

Garrus moaned, "Please Wrex...Tali's given me enough shit for it."

"Say it," Wrex persisted.

"Go drink that disgusting white substance that humans drink," Garrus said, contemplating on what the liquid was called.

"It's called milk and for the record, that stuff is awesome," Kaidan butted in before returning to his conversation.

"Yeah, go drink milk," Garrus stated.

"I want to hear those words bubble out of your mouth," Wrex pushed on, his grin not lessening.

"I'll marry an elcor and have a regiment's worth of babies before I say it," Garrus responded, his glare not lessening as much as Wrex's grin wasn't.

"I'm a krogan, I have other ways of getting you to talk," Wrex stated.

"I'm begging you," Garrus mockingly begged, "Don't use your charm on me! If it can attract krogan females, then how can I hope to defeat it?"

"I've got a shotgun," Wrex added.

"And an intolerable persistance, no doubt," Garrus responded.

Their bickering continued on forever as the other conversations flourished. Eventually, the krogan and turian's banter, four words people thought would never end up in a sentence, ended when Wrex slurped up the last of his ryncol and approached Marcus.

"Shepard," Wrex said and Marcus turned around to face the krogan. The battlemaster held out his hand for Marcus to shake and the spectre took it freely, shaking it with a tight grip.

"This is goodbye," Wrex stated and everyone stopped talking, facing the krogan.

"Wrex?" Marcus asked, flabbergasted, "Leaving already?"

The krogan nodded, releasing the human's hand, "You've shown me what it means to truly be krogan and that my people have to let our past go and move on. My people need motivation for a future, and I shall provide it." Wrex finished and everyone looked at the krogan with cocked expressions.

Wrex continued, "I will return to Tuchanka and relieve my idiotic brother of his position as clan chief. When I assume control, I'll knock some heads together, try and unite the clans under a single banner. We'll gather some foreign support and attempt to rebuild what we lost. It'll probably take a decade, maybe more, but it'll work. We might even cure the genophage, but that's hopeful thinking." Wrex declared.

Marcus gave a warm smile, "Hope is something I find myself holding onto. The Reapers are coming and by god, if it kills me I will find a way to stop each and everyone of them. However, I'll need one hell of a big army."

Wrex smirked, "How big?"

Marcus returned Wrex's knowing grin, "Galactic."

Wrex guffawed as he took Marcus' hand in a brotherly handshake, "Then by the will of Kalros and the shamans, I will make sure you have the foundations for that army. If I can successfully unite the clans under my rule, clan Urdnot's rule, then you will have the krogan under your command. If the Reapers want a fight, they'll get one."

"It's been an honor, Wrex," Marcus declared, letting go of his krogan friend.

"You talk about honor like it's not mutual," Wrex chuckled a hearty laugh, "I'd be going a little far, but I consider you my battlebrother. It's an honor only a few get and I think you're the first alien I've actually entrusted with the title. When the call for battle comes, Clan Urdnot will answer that call, and all our finest warriors will serve under your name. Then, and only then, will we fight side by side, once again."

Marcus nodded, "And we'll send the Reapers straight to hell."

"I don't know what hell is, but I'm sure it's bad. If so, then let the reapers meet their maker!" Wrex pounded his fists together before saying goodbye to the rest of his comrades. Minutes later, Wrex left them. _Good luck Wrex, I hope you don't need it. _With that, Marcus turned back around to talk with Kaidan once again, but a question popped up in his mind that he wanted answered.

"Kaidan, remember how you stayed with Liara and Wrex to hold off that geth battalion?" Marcus asked, remembering their intended sacrifice.

Kaidan nodded, "Course I do, it's where I thought I would die. Unforgettable."

"How the hell did you get out of there unscathed? You looked uninjured. I have faith in your abilities, but even Anderson wouldn't get out of that without a few bullet wounds."

Kaidan nodded slightly as he answered, "It...It's hard to explain. It was like some unearthly presence was at work. I mean, one minute the geth were charging at us full circle and then the next, half of them just drop down...if I can use the term...dead. Stone cold, non-moving, expired, dead."

Marcus widened his eyes, "And the other half?"

"Confused. They were just as flabbergasted as we were. Didn't change facts though; enemy's and enemy right? We gunned them down without a problem."

Marcus stroked his beard as he thought through what he just heard. _Unearthly presence? Could it have been...did Hashem take down half a geth battalion with just a thought? _Marcus smirked at the premise of that. _With god on ourside, the Reapers can consider themselves doomed. If hashem doesn't agree with this 'harvest' the reapers speak of, then it must not be good and can't continue._

Kaidan excused himself, going to the restrooms, giving Garrus plenty of time to sneak in and ask Marcus the question he's been itching to ask.

"So...do I smell some chemicals between a certain spectre and stuttery quarian?" Garrus snarikly asked and Marcus shot a glare at the turian.

"Not a word Garrus. If you so much as squawk I will have your head as hood ornament on my cabin wall," Marcus punctuated this with a mock presentation of putting Garrus' head on a wall.

Garrus held his talons up in innocence, "Mandibles are sealed. Just curious. Tali was the last person I thought you'd fall for. I thought it'd be Liara or Ashley."

Marcus shook his head, "Ashley wasn't my type and Liara...well, she's a hundred and six. It just doesn't feel right falling for a...elderly person by human comparison?"

Garrus gave a repulsed snort, "Certainly not. It's just-" Garrus didn't get to finish as Liara walked over and their mouths closed.

"So...how did it happen?" Liara asked with a grin. Tali had told her about their relationship and was slightly disappointed. But if Liara really loved him, she would support him in their relationship and as of now she had a good friendship with the quarian machinist.

"How did what happen?" Marcus asked.

"You and Tali," Liara asked and Marcus' face turned red, failing to hide his embarassment. Tali slipped next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He would have a talk with her later. They talked about his relationship with Tali for quite a while until Marcus stood up, taking his drink with him before facing his team.

"Comrades. I have come to know each and every one of you on a personal level," Marcus declared, mostly having Tali in mind, "You've become more than crewmates and soldiers to me; you've become my friends. We've been through what's close to two months of cruel, non-stop actions to save the galaxy. The Reapers are still coming, but for now we lament."

"We mourn Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, to all of you who know her as Ash, who sacrificed herself in the line of duty to detonate a device set to destroy Saren's hidey hole. Did she do it? Did her sacrifice ultimately mean something? Of course it did! If not for her bravery and courage, her ability to see through her racism, we would not be standing here today, celebrating."

"So I propose a toast. A toast to the fallen. A toast to Ashley Williams!" With that, everyone cheered Ashley's name as they clinked their glasses and bottles together, taking a sip of their drinks. Before he could sit down, the music picked up and people began to migrate to the dance floor.

"Let's dance!" Liara requested as she leapt off her stool, immediately mingling in with the other dancers. Garrus just shrugged his shoulders and joined her, mingling in with a few turian women and flirting with them as he danced. He got nowhere with them, but it didn't stop the turian viglante from trying. Kaidan just sat down and watched and before long, Marcus felt a hand tug at his shoulder.

Tali's voice entered his ear in a whisper, "You know, I've never seen you dance."

Marcus felt goosebumps rise up his spine, "No. Get that thought out of your mind right now. You don't want to see me dance. Your curiosity will kill you if you're not careful."

"Come on, come dance with me." With that, Tali stood up and began moving towards the dance floor, pulling his arm.

"No. I'm a terrible dancer. I've murdered thousands of innocents by merely waving my arms." Marcus deadpanned.

Tali let go of his arm and crossed her arms under her breasts, "Come on, I know you want to see how we quarians like to dance. I'll warn you though, I'm...just as terrible. Maybe we both share mutual actions?"

"Well if you're also bad..." Marcus hesitated.

"Pleassssseeeeee," Tali pleaded in her irresistable accent. Something about her voice made Marcus give in. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about that accent of hers was just too cute to resist.

"Fine, just be warned," Marcus surrendered, putting his drink on the bench as he took Tali's hand and allowed the quarian to drag him to the dance floor. He glared at Kaidan who was laughing his ass off at the spectre. Some of the dancers deliberately avoided Tali, but she ignored it as they reached the center.

Letting go of his hand, she then began to dance. Marcus was immediately entranced. Her arms flowed in the air like a professional, her legs slid across the ground like flowing water, her hips swinging from side to side hynotically. _Terrible dancer? She's...amazing!_

Seeing his flabbergasted expression, Tali giggled as she moved towards him, rubbing her hips against his. This caused him to give in as he began light dancing but upon more of Tali's encouragement, he gave in and went into full dancing. Everyone laughed at Marcus' horrible dancing, but he ignored it in favor of watching his quarian girlfriend. His vision was just hypnotised by her astonishing movements; if this is how quarian women dance, it was no wonder they were so irresistable.

Moving up to her, he managed to wrap his arms around her waist and turn her towards him. She smirked at the gesture as she bit her lip. Marcus just stood there, staring into her eyes.

"Who taught you how to dance?" Marcus asked.

"My mother noticed that I loved to dance so she got me dancing lessons with Elan'Shiya nar Rayya, the ship's chief medical officer. Apparently she was a professional at it. Why?" Tali asked.

"Because you're amazing," Marcus complimented, "Terrible dancer? That's a downright lie and you know it. You put the asari to shame." His voice was but a whisper, words only his lover could hear. She hummed at the sounds of his words, at the calm they brought her.

"Thanks," She said lamely.

The two continued to dance together as the night went on. Soon, the time would come for them to return to their duties and eliminate the remains of the geth resistance. They would have to prepare for the imminent reaper invasion. But for now, they had peace.

It was enigmatic enough.

**"Well, I thank you for your time. I...I...just, thank you."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"It's not like I had a choice. I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure I was kidnapped."**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"I know who you are. If you did, you'd realize just what you mean to me. You'd remember me."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"Who are you? Why do I mean so much to you? Who the hell am I!?"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**"I wish I could tell you...my love. Greenflame, end recording."**

**- Tali'Shepard pav Rannoch.**

**"No, wait...!"**

**- Interrogation Subject 001.**

**INTERROGATION 01 COMPLETE. INTERROGATION RESUMES IN DESIGNATED FORTNIGHT PAST CURRENT WEEK. INTERROGATION 02 PREPARATIONS BEING MADE. POWERING DOWN. PLACING SUBJECTS IN CRYOGENIC STORAGE.**

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Don't leave yet! We've still got the epilogue. ;)**


	35. Epilogue

**ENIGMA**

**EPILOGUE**

_July 16, 2183_

_1733 hours._

_Captain's Quarters, Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate SSV Normandy SR-1, Docked with Port Hanshan._

_Commander Marcus Lee Shepard, Machinist Tali'Zorah nar Rayya._

"Tali, stop it! I have to work!" Marcus stated with a grin as Tali wrapped her arms around his neck, holding her head close to his. Marcus finally gave up and leaned his head into her neck, kissing the bottom of her helmet's chin as he did so. Signing off his terminal, he spun his chair around, Twisting until he could fully face his quarian lover.

Without thinking, Tali stradled him as she kept her arms around his neck, leaning her mask against his forehead, "Well, maybe you need some time off from that work. What do you say, Marcus?" With that, Marcus smiled as he brought her head down and kissed the top of her hood.

"Sounds good, Miss Zorah. But what shall we do?" Marcus asked. Tali seemed to roll this through her head for a little bit before formulating a proper response. She knew sleep was out of the question as was a shower and she really didn't want to leave the cabin. A matter of fact, she didn't know what to do except just sit in his lap.

"How about...we just keep doing this?" Tali suggested.

Marcus smiled, "Sounds good to me." With that, Tali just embraced him deeper and buried her head under his chin. He began stroking the back of her hood as he thought of something.

"I've never told you about my childhood," Marcus declared.

"Never really asked," Tal responded, "What was it like?"

"Well, it was mostly uninteresting. Mostly just travelling from ship to ship." Marcus answered.

"Sounds like my life." Tali answered and the two of them just returned to holding each other, not caring for what they could be doing. Shore leave was going to continue for a fortnight, so they could do what they wanted.

Marcus thought of the future. Of what might happen after the reaper invasion. It was coming, that much was certain and he knew he, they, could stop them. But after? He had the perfect woman sitting in his lap. Maybe she'd reveal herself to him some day? Maybe they'd get married? So many things they could do. When he met Tali and got to know her more, he just knew that she was the woman he wanted to grow old with.

Tali thought of the same things. What her future life might be like with Marcus. At some point, she would be able to feel his skin on hers, but it wouldn't be for a while. And eventually she would have to tell him about quarian bonding ceremonies. If Marcus was invested and really wanted to be with her, they would have to bond at some point and that scared her. What would Auntie Raan think? Keelah, what about father?

Then they both realized, as if working in mental unison, that they were thinking too far ahead. They needed to slow down and let their relationship develop before they even reached that level. They had plenty of time to figure this stuff out. For now, they could just enjoy the present without the worries of the future.

It wasn't long before Tali fell asleep and Marcus quickly followed. They both dreamt happy dreams, but Tali's dream was vivid.

Tali's opened as she lay down, sitting in a field of grass. The sky was a brilliant blue, the bright light of the sun striking through the atmosphere of the planet as it impacted the surface. She knew this planet, but only saw it through pictures of ancient history. She felt the wind blow against her face as she closed her eyes, inhaling as she felt the wind brush against her naked skin. It was euphoria like no other.

"Tali!"

The quarian turned around to watch Marcus as plopped down next to her. She smiled as she wrapped her arms around him. She wore standard quarian attire, not in her suit. Just behind them was a large, two-storey house made from wooden planks and bricks. Marcus smiled back as he kissed her lightly on the lips, Tali letting his taste be breathed into her.

Releasing their lips from each other, they both just cradled each other as they watched the beautiful sky. Rannoch, the garden world, the homeworld of her people's dreams. Rannoch's three moons shone brightly in the sky, their presence enhancing their moment. They lay down in the grass together and looked up into the sky. She felt five fingers slip inbetween her three and she clenched her hand into a fist, squeezing her husband's hand.

Tali began to laugh as he tickled her, causing her to leap up onto him and stradle him as she held her hands at bay. With a smile, she lay ontop of him, her face inches from his. They indulged in each other in the look of each other. Finally, Marcus spoke up, stroking her cheek with his free hand.

"You're beautiful," Marcus complimented.

Tali blushed but her dream was suddenly stopped when a synthetic horn tore through the sky. She screamed as she leapt off of Marcus, looking up into the sky. Reapers, all in the form of Sovereign, rained from the sky. Their numbers darkned the sky as literally millions of them fell from the sky, raining beams of death.

She screamed as she felt a red hot beam cross across her.

Tali gasped as she woke, finding herself still in Marcus' arms. She sighed as she leaned back into them, apparently not waking the slumbering spectre. Tali ignored the nightmare about the reapers and thought about the dream she just had. _The feel of his touch. The sound of the wind as it brushed past my bare skin. The feeling of the grass prickling at my thighs. The taste of his lips._

Then she remembered that the dream had been on Rannoch, Marcus had the line down the center of his forehead symbolizing their bond and the house behind them. _Home. Marriage. A house? _She remembered the promise her father made about building them a house on the homeworld. Had that been the house she saw in her dream? Was that what she wanted her future with Marcus to be?

She stroked his cheek and sighed as she felt nothing but the glove rubbing against his face.

She went back to sleep and all she thought about was that house. How beautifully enticing it looked.

Some day.

**Friends, it's been a fun ride, but it's far from over yet. Enigma II is in the works and will be released at some point, but it will be the longest and probably least complicated of my stories, but that may change (it's still in early stages). I'd just like to warn you that Enigma II will take a while to produce and while an enticing prologue 'teaser' of sorts will be released, it won't be much in way of actual writing for a while. Maybe...a fortnight? Hey, I love writing fanfiction and too me? That's a long friggin time! :P**

**And I feel like I could have done more with this chapter, but I guess the energy got sapped out of me. Anticipation for Enigma 2? No excuse. I will edit this in future and extend it but for now, I was getting nowhere with it and decided to go with this. **

**See you in Mass Effect 3: How It Could Have Happened? folks.**

**Remember to sterilize and Keelah Se'lai.**

**Warning: May be changing author name. Just a litte heads up. ;)**


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